Working out is not the most enjoyable thing in the world for most people. We all love the results but we don’t generally want to spend hours getting sweaty. The good news is that we don’t have to – there are clever ways to get in exercise without putting in a lot of effort.
We all have busy lives that make exercising sometimes almost impossible. While it’s important to stop having excuses, sometimes you just would rather stay at home and watch TV than drive to the gym. But once you start missing your regular gym routine, you might slip into bad habits even further and you’ll end up ruining your health. After all, your health is your most important asset and you have to look after it, both by eating right and by exercising.
So, if you find yourself feeling lazy and the motivation is gone, remind yourself about the easy ways of getting in exercise. These seven ways are sneaky and they will get you in shape when you don’t feel like it!
Stand up for 10 minutes before sitting down
If at all possible, start standing up for 10 minutes before you sit down. Standing up will help with your posture and muscle strength, with many studies finding sitting down being one of the biggest health problems. So before you sit down to eat or watch TV, make a conscious decision to stand up for at least 10 minutes. Chances are that you start moving around and might even get some housework done as well! Even if you just end up staring at the TV, you’ll still be standing and that’s good for your health.
Meet up with friends in places that get you moving
You should start making exercise part of your social situations. For example, go out bowling, ice-skating or take walks in the park. You’re still meeting with friends and having fun but also doing something more active than just sitting at a movie theatre or a fast-food restaurant.
Always opt for the stairs and change your regular walking routes
Stop taking the lift or the escalator and instead just walk up the stairs. This isn’t going to add a lot of hassle to your day but it will help you burn more calories and strengthens your body. In addition to this, you should start altering your regular walking routes. For example, if you walk to the metro station or bus stop, then simply do a different route each day – sometimes it might end up shorter and others longer. You can also do this at the store – instead of picking the same items in the same order, simply start from the other side of the store first. It’s a simple trick that can make you walk just a little bit more each day.
Spend one song running or powerwalking
Choose a song for each day that you’ll listen to and then spend that song running or powerwalking. You’ll get to listen to a fun song and you don’t need to be exercising for more than 3-4 minutes at a time. If you can’t go running or walking, you can always spend the song doing jumping jacks. The chances are high for you to want to continue moving about just a bit longer – even if you don’t, you still elevated your heartbeat in a short cardio exercise.
Do 10 movements before daily tasks
Push-ups, jumping jacks and sit-ups are all great basic exercise you can do without any equipment at any place and time. You should pick a daily task that you associate with one the moves and do 10 of that move when you’re doing the tasks. For example, before you brush your teeth in the morning, you should do ten push-ups first. Ten moves won’t take a long time and it will become an automatic habit very quickly. You’ll start getting in a lot of exercises and you might even notice you’re increasing the number of repetitions.
Stand up to send texts or to talk on the phone
Whenever you get a text, you want to reply to stand up and write the message standing up. You’re not doing anything out of the ordinary but the movement of getting up and then standing for a bit will have big health benefits. You might even notice yourself staying standing and doing something different after you’ve sent the text – you’re already standing so might as well! Another good trick is to get up whenever you need to talk on the phone with someone.
Exercise while sitting down
You don’t need to be standing up in order to exercise. You can sit on your couch, grab a heavy book and start lifting it above your head like a weight, for instance. There are many other clever tricks like this – simply keep watching your favourite show but try and get at least ten repetitions of each move. Sometimes you can just lie down and still burn calories!
About the writer:
Esha is a self-proclaimed lazy fitness fanatic. She’s gotten everyone at her office at Bayzat.com involved with all sorts of lazy exercise tricks and is proud of what she’s learned so far about motivating the body to move!