Exercise is a crucial element of weight loss, not to mention an important part of an overall healthy lifestyle. If you don’t have time to hit the gym, you can still find time to get your heart racing over the course of your day. Try these easy ways to sneak exercise into your regular routine, and enjoy a fitter, more active you without having to rearrange your life to make it happen.
1. Take The Stairs During Your Daily Routine
Whenever you find yourself reaching for the elevator button, or hopping on an escalator, try doing things the hard way instead and taking the stairs. People go to gyms just to get on a Stairmaster machine, but few people take advantage of the stairs around them during their daily lives. Stand out from the pack, and get up or down to the next level with nothing but a little effort and your own two feet. It’s an easy way to sneak exercise into the daily routine you already have.
2. Sneak Exercise Into Commercial Breaks
Watching television is a part of many people’s daily routine, which makes it a great time to sneak exercise into your schedule. When you’re in front of the television and a commercial comes on, try hopping off the couch for a quick exercise session. Whether it’s a quick bout of cardio, a few simple strength-building exercises like crunches or lunges, or even a couple of simple stretches, anything you can do to get your body moving will raise your heart rate, which means you’ll burn extra calories not just while the advertisements are playing, but after you’ve returned to your snug seat on the sofa, while your heart is gradually cooling down and returning to its normal rate.
3. Make Commuting Into Exercise
You’re already on the road to and from work in the mornings and evenings anyway, so why not make your commute do double-duty as exercise time? Walking or biking for part or all of your daily trek is a great way to sneak exercise into your day. Even if you swap your car for public transportation, you’ll find yourself walking, standing, and moving more than if you were driving, and those calories the extra movement will burn can really add up over the course of your work week. When you sneak exercise into something you’re already doing, you’re building healthy habits that are easy to stick with.
4. Exercise While You’re On The Phone
The next time you’re chatting, or are on hold, take advantage of the fact that the person you’re talking to (or waiting for) can’t see you, and burn some calories. A quick stroll around the kitchen or the backyard, or a couple of quick isometric exercises, makes your phone time do double duty as a chance to work on shedding some extra pounds. When your daily routine makes a quick gossip session or a couple of dull phone errands into a workout, you’ll see pounds melt away without having to carve out extra time to go to the gym.
5. Sneak Exercise When You’re Parking
The next time you’re at a shopping mall or a sporting event, try parking a bit farther away from the building than you usually do. You’ll end up doing some extra walking, which is great cardiovascular exercise, and will help you slim down.
6. Put Dancing Into Your Daily Routine
The next time you’re going through your regular morning routine of getting dressed and ready for work, sneak exercise into your day by dancing your way through it. Since you’re in the privacy of your own home, you don’t have to worry about looking silly, and pretending you’re in a movie musical will not only help you start the day off in a great mood, it’ll help get your blood pumping, which raises your metabolism immediately.
