Sneak Fitness into Everyday Moments
Life can feel like one long to-do list. As a personal trainer, I work with people with full-time jobs and retired people. Both report feeling overcommitted, under the gun, not keeping up, and wondering where their time goes. Fitness can feel like one chore too many in a packed schedule. Might there be ways to sneak some fitness into your day without heading to the gym for a 60-minute session?
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Consider walking or cycling to work, events, and the store to turn a passive drive into a mobile exercise routine. Note that the commonly discussed goal of 10,000 steps per day was a Japanese marketing gimmick. The character for 10,000 looked like a walking person. Any amount near or over 5,000 is terrific and scientifically proven to extend your life if you want to go for the 10,000 steps — equivalent to 5 miles — note that some of those steps are on a walk, and many are during everyday activities.
As you engage in more sedentary activities at an office or around the house, take short breaks to stretch or perform quick exercises. In a recent study at Columbia University (reported on by NPR), Keith Diaz said, “We found that a five-minute walk every half-hour was able to offset a lot of the harms of sitting,” The findings have been published in an American College of Sports Medicine journal, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Stretch, walk, do some squats, wall push-ups, tricep dips, or the like to activate your muscles and release the tension accumulated during prolonged inactivity. If you spread three five-minute exercise breaks throughout your day, you would have exercised for 15 minutes.
Throughout the day, make the active choice. Create healthy micro-habits. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Balance on one foot as you brush your teeth; work up to one minute per leg as you do the required two minutes of brushing. Squat while your coffee is brewing.
Take advantage of the times when you are doing something active. Gardening, yard work, and housework all count as exercise. It is incredible how far I walk around the kitchen cooking a meal.
Each action that you take will cumulate, leading to you feeling better physically and, likely, with an elevated mood and more energy. When fitness becomes a habit, we get results. Lower back pain goes away, we gain mobility, strength, and flexibility, our balance improves, and we want to do more.
Sneaking fitness into your day transcends the traditional boundaries of exercise. Rather than packing the bag to go to the gym, you’ve done your workout seamlessly throughout your day. The mundane becomes an opportunity, and every step and every stretch contributes to a healthier, more active lifestyle. Being active isn’t confined to a location or time; it is a way of life.