You’re too busy to exercise, right? Your job consumes all your time. You’re strapped by professional and family demands. As you get more responsibilities, your free time shrinks.

Making time simply calls for creativity and a broader understanding of how to get in daily exercise.

“The trap is thinking that exercise must be an hour in the gym,” said Charles Scott, an exercise coach.

His message is simple: If you have a demanding job, you need to find a work-life blend.

“An hour in the gym is exercise,” Scott said in a recent interview. “But it’s just one form of exercise.”

Scott coaches about 70 business executives and other busy people to improve their physical and professional well-being. He’s is relatively hardcore about his own exercise but realizes not everyone can be — or wants to be.

Trap of ambition

Rather than terming it exercise, Scott talks about teaching “intentional movement” to his goal-driven clients.

“The ambitious person’s trap is when you undermine your physical and emotional health in pursuit of your professional goals,” he said.

Scott asks busy people to focus on something other than making money or chasing fame inside their profession. He said he tries to emphasize a holistic approach that includes the emotional, the professional and the physical.

“Our bodies need to move,” he said. “No matter what age you are, our bodies must move to stay healthy. So if you’re not exercising, you’re out of alignment.”

Alternative exercise for busy people

Scott has a list of ways to blend movement into your day without a gym. He suggests doing one-on-one meetings while you’re walking instead of sitting behind a desk or laptop. Or, stand rather than sitting when you hold meetings.

“If you want a meeting to be short and efficient, choose the standing conference room,” he said.

Try isometric exercises during a meeting to tone, for instance, your stomach muscles, he said.

“Tighten up your stomach muscles. Hold for 20 seconds and don’t hold your breath,” he said. “Don’t make it obvious. Release. Do it again. You’ll be sore tomorrow. It burns calories. It tones muscles. And it takes precisely zero seconds out of your I-am-too-busy-to-exercise day.”

Blend work and exercise

If your flight is delayed, go for a walk around the airport and add to your daily step count, Scott suggested.

Link workouts to daily events. For example, when you wake up, always go for a walk. Or, when you get home from work, do a certain number of pushups right after you walk through the door.

Make a workout a social event and do it with a friend or a group.

Pay attention to the food you put in your body. Treat your body with respect.

Take quick breaks from answering emails to do 10 squats or pushups.

“In business, many people show up to work, and they crank it out all day,” Scott said. “Then they go home exhausted, and they are fussy with the people they love.”

The partitioning approach

One of Scott’s clients is Harrison Kahn, the general manager of the Vermont Creamery, an artisanal dairy.

Kahn uses what’s called the partition method and awakens at 5 a.m. to get in his exercise, typically running, biking or popping on skis in the winter in largely rural Vermont.

“I kind of get in the ‘me stuff’ before the rest of the house wakes up,” he said.

Kahn describes himself as a routine-oriented person who is comfortable dividing his day into chapters. Once he’s at the office, his attention is his 120 employees.

“I’m very focused when I’m at work, so I can get it all in as opposed to going in and out and having the day go on really long.”