Sometimes life gets in the way and exercise gets put off. Juggling work, family, house chores and everything in between can get tiring and exercise get put at the bottom of the list. For those times you do find a moment, all you want to do is relax and switch off.
We do not exercise is important. Exercise is important for maintaining a healthy weight range, for muscle growth, improving our fitness and our bodily functioning. So how do we fit exercise into today’s busy lifestyle. Here is some simple ways to be more active in your every day life.
Walk to Work:
Simple tricks to increasing activity every day
Walking can freshen your mind, give you fresh air and adds to your total step count for the day. Walking to work can decrease your stress as you have some time to think and gather your thoughts on the way to work.
Live to far from work? Can you park further away from work allowing an extra 10 minutes so that you can walk some of the way?
Don’t work? Can you walk to the supermarket or with the kids to school?
Instead of doing blocks around a carpark searching for parks can you take that park a little further away and add to your exercise for the day?
Active Lunch Break:
We all know that feeling when lunch time comes around and you finally sit and relax. As the dreaded minutes tick round and you have to return to work- there is no way you want to get up. Can you instead turn your lunch break into being active?
Getting out of the workplace will allow you to detach from work and clear your mind for the break. Really allowing yourself to relax. Go for a walk around the block rather then spending the whole break sitting. You will feel better for it on returning back to work. A clear mind and more activity in your day.
Standing Desk:
Is your job predominantly a job sitting at a desk for long period of time? Research has shown that sitting- especially crunch over a desk for long periods of time is bad for your health. Sitting for prolonged periods is bad for your posture and can weaken your bones.
Can your desk be converted to a standing desk? Standing at your desk is better for your posture and bones. Standing compared to sitting also burns more calories. Standing more for even part of the day can also help.
Choose the Harder Option:
As we get tired in the day we tend to choose the easier option. When looking at the stairs compared to the lift- if we are tired the lift seems so much more appealing. Making a conscious effort to not take short cuts, even when tired can lead to more activity in the day. Often at work when we take short cuts for being lazy it is often not the best practice and could impact on our work performance. Not choosing the lazy option could improve your work performance.
For example, if you require safety equipment- opting to walk the distance to collect all the safety equipment includes more activity, better job performance and increased safety.
Volunteering to be the one to go and collect items will add more activity into your day and increase your work performance. If the printer runs out of paper. Volunteering to get more paper will have you seen, and a helpful employee and you are getting more activity. It is all about perspective.
1 hour is 4% of the day:
At the end of the day, 1 hour is only 4% of your day. Allocating an hour to exercise although sometimes can be difficult is about prioritizing. Exercising regularly will increase your fitness, aid your weight loss goals and lead to an overall healthy lifestyle.
The best way to be more active in your day is to allocate sometime to exercise. Caring for your self is important. Exercise releases endorphins which helps your mental health. Turn exercise into a social event by joining a sport or group exercise and it benefits all three elements of health. Being active is important for your well being. The easiest way to ensure you meeting your activity requirements is by prioritizing and scheduling in some time each day- whatever that is.