Sometimes the hardest part of a workout is just showing up. During my almost 10 years as a personal trainer, I’ve encountered plenty of reasons why clients place training on hold or fall out of their routine. Whether you have to travel for work, feel like your exercise routine has become stale, picked up an extra shift at work, or would like to save some money but still want to keep up with your fitness, I’m here to provide practical solutions for you to ease your way back into an exercise routine. My goal is for you to leave the gym feeling confident about working through these common barriers, while maintaining your fitness and maybe even leveling up. The evidence suggests that the number one barrier to exercise is a lack of time. So let’s begin there. It’s understandable that you need to prioritize family, work, or other responsibilities, but I’m positive that you can have your cake and eat it too. Here’s how:

Choose a gym nearby home or your office

Try subscribing to a gym so close that you’re a fool for not becoming a member. That’ll make it much easier to integrate fitness into your schedule. Evidence suggests choosing a gym further away from home is correlated with lower exercise frequency .

Implement a superset-style training program 

A superset is a training style that pairs two exercises, one after the other. Supersets save 36% of time when compared to traditional strength training. So, if you typically spend one hour in the gym, supersets can save you more than 20 minutes! Subjects in this study saw similar increases in strength and muscle growth when compared to the traditional set style. These can help get you back into a routine, and most importantly, help you stay in it.

Keep exercising while traveling

Another common barrier is traveling for work. I believe I’ve encountered this issue most frequently in my time as a personal trainer. Here’s how to make sure you don’t get forced into a fitness slump while on the move.

1. Plan ahead – If you’re serious about your fitness, consider doing research in the area you’re traveling to. For instance, does it have a gym nearby? If so, what time are the gym hours of operation? If not, consider alternatives like outdoor spaces, hiking areas, or other forms of physical activity.

2. Expect the least – This may be a tough pill to swallow, but lower your expectations. You most likely will not have access to a luxury gym, and you may not even have the time or opportunity to perform an optimal workout. So, to make your stay easier, just expect the minimum, and prepare for that.

3. Get creative – If you travel often, begin bringing travel-friendly fitness equipment that can be used in the event you do not have access to a facility. For example, a jump rope or resistance bands.

4. Do anything – To maintain your fitness when traveling, plan to do something, as long as it keeps you in your routine. This can be a body weight routine in your hotel room , a walk around the area you’re staying, a bike ride, or just finding a park nearby and creating a fun routine. Any form of activity will be advantageous to your overall fitness and health.

Fight exercise staleness

When exercise gets stale, it can indicate that you’re losing joy in the workout or that your exercise selections aren’t producing the novel stimulus they once did. Luckily, this is a simple fix. If those two instances sound like you, consider this:

1. Change your exercise routine – This may sound simple—because it is! Simply changing your routine from doing higher reps to lower reps (and more intensity) can provide a new stimulus and ultimately improve performance. For instance, if you’ve been doing sets of 12 on squats, try sets of six. This will feel a lot different!

2. Switch your exercise selection – If you’ve been performing the barbell bench press for the past three months and you feel like your muscles aren’t being stimulated like they once were, try switching to the dumbbell chest press. This will create different training stimulus because it’s a completely different lift, while still targeting the pecs, typically increasing the pecs’ range of motion (ROM).

If you take any lesson away today, it should be that you have complete control over your fitness, whether you’re traveling, not feeling as motivated, or actively trying to find more time to commit to your fitness. So get back out here—and most importantly, stay out there.

Chris Parnell is an M.S. Candidate in Human Performance and Fitness and NASM-Certified Personal Trainer and Strength Coach based in New York City.