“I don’t have time.” This is one of the most common excuses for not exercising. We are a very time poor society these days, we have full-time jobs, part-time study, we have kids to take care of, take to school, take to sports, we have long commutes to work, then there’s the housework, the cooking, the grocery shopping, and on top of that we can be contacted 24/7 through our mobiles, so we’re never really switched off. We all know that we’re SUPPOSED to exercise for 30-60 minutes every day, but sometimes we just don’t have that chunk of time to spare pounding the treadmill. The good news is – accumulating your exercise in small increments can be just as beneficial as doing it all in one block. There are lots of little things you can do every day to help you get a few extra steps, contract a few extra muscles or burn a few extra calories here and there. Every little bit counts! Here are some ways you can sneak it in without trying too hard.
1. Park further away
This first one is an oldie but a goodie. How many times a day do we drive to a destination, park the car and get out. If we park just 100 metres away every time, we’ll walk 200 metres extra to get to and from our destination. If we do this 5 times a day, by the end of the day we’ll have walked an extra 1000 metres – 1km!
2. Take the stairs
If you have a choice to take the stairs or take the escalator/elevator, take the stairs. You’ll burn more than 10 times as many calories as you would standing still! If you’re feeling really motivated – RUN up the stairs.
3. Crunch while you watch TV
You’re just going to be sitting down anyway, why not strengthen your abdominal muscles and burn a few calories at the same time. Any exercise you can do while looking straight ahead can be done while watching TV. Crunches, bicycles, squats, lunges, pushups, bird-dogs… you’re only limited by your imagination and motivation.
4. Practice good posture while you drive
Driving is one time where you HAVE to stay sitting down. But you can still engage your core muscles and improve your posture by tilting your pelvis backwards and crunching your abdominals; pulling your shoulders back, tucking your chin in and pushing your head back against the head rest.
5. Calf raises while you wait
If you’re standing in line at the grocery store or standing behind a counter at work, you can contract your calf muscles by raising up onto your toes and lowering back down, both together and one at a time
6. Fidget
As silly as it might sound, by refusing to sit still you can burn up to 100 extra calories a day. Jiggle your knees, tap your toes, swivel your chair, roll your shoulders – any activity works!
7. Swap your chair for a fit ball
Swapping out your office chair for a fit ball, even just for 20 minutes at a time, will help you engage more muscles and keep moving, which will burn extra calories. Some of these fit ball exercises obviosuly aren’t suited for the office, but check out the simpler sitting down ones for some good ideas.
8. Clean teeth
squats
squatsYou have to clean your teeth twice a day for 2 minutes. And that is a 2 minutes window of opportunity to squeeze in as many body weight squats as you can!
9. Squeeze your booty
The amount of time we spend sitting down in chairs is incredible. Use some of that time to squeeze your glute muscles, both together and then one at a time.
10. Stand up
Pretty simple really, you burn more calories standing than sitting, so when you’re talking on your phone or scrolling through Facebook = stand up, or even better, walk or move around. It’s also a great way to reduce lower back pain.
11. Crank up the music
Doing your daily chores around the house, or just going for a walk – you’ll work harder for longer and it will seem easier if you have some great, motivational music playing.
12. Get outside
12. Get outsideInstead of taking the kids to a movie, take them to the park, take them to the beach, for a bike ride or for a hike. Grab a ball, a frisbee, a kite – anything to get them moving, and get involved yourself!
13. Stretch
Simply taking a few minutes to do some active, energising stretching first thing in the morning will help get your ready for the day, and a few relaxing, gentle stretches at night will help you let go of the day and get ready for bed.