Lifestyle changes in tandem with consistent physical activity positively impact your overall health. People who sit less and perform moderate-to-vigorous physical activity are known to have healthier bodies.
Being physically active works wonders to improve your brain health, manage weight, and reduce the risk of various diseases. Protecting your bones, joints, and muscles as you age is also essential. Thus, ensuring regular exercise will allow you to live a full life and age gracefully.
Seven ways to be active if you can’t hit the gym
Skip an episode of your Netflix binge to take out 20 to 30 minutes, or take some time during lunch or before you start with your work for any one of these seven ways to stay active:
Put on some music and dance
You can listen to the radio or music and dance at home. Dancing is a fun way to be active without intending to exercise. It helps to increase your heart rate, and your dance moves will ensure that each part of the body is engaged and worked on. If you like, include the little ones, housemates, partners, or family along with you to make it all the more enjoyable!
Outdoor time with kids/pets
Kids or pets, they both need some out-of-the-house time! Taking your kids or pet for a walk will work great for your and their physical activity. If their pace is too slow, you can add some lunges between your walk or even run a few steps every few minutes to make yourself work harder. Walk around the slide instead of standing while your child is enjoying in the garden. You can even jog behind your child’s bicycles or tricycles as they ride. All this extra work will give the much-needed pump to your heart.
Do some home cleaning with squats
Were you eyeing those spider webs for long and unable to bring yourself to clean them? Activate cleaning mode and use body movements that will make you stretch up and squat down. Some vigorous sweeping, mopping or vacuuming will ensure that your housekeeping chores will help burn significant calories. What else? You have a cleaner house!
Perform floor-based exercises
Perform floor-based exercises while watching a movie, like push-ups or sit-ups. You can quickly learn these from body-weight exercise videos on the internet with limited or no equipment. Roughly 15 – 20 minutes of workout will give your body some good conditioning.
Even yoga is an excellent form of exercise you can do while sitting at home. Exercising even for a short while throughout the day can be an effective way of getting active without feeling that you must commit much of your free time to it.
Use the time when you are cooking
As cooking sometimes requires us to wait, you can do some activity instead of browsing through your phone. Practice stretching or light yoga moves or you can tuck in easy exercises such as skipping, squats or sit-ups during these times.
You can even get a quick workout on the under bed treadmill to utilise the cooking time.
Combine 5–6 High-Intensity exercises to make one challenging routine
High-Intensity Interval Training or HIIT aims to elevate your heart rate quickly, usually by performing short bursts of high-intensity activity followed by a brief resting period. HIIT helps to boost your cardiovascular fitness faster by working harder instead of longer.
A good HIIT workout can include exercises like jumping jacks, mountain climbers, or burpees.
Combining a short HIIT workout with strength training can be perfect. Take a pre-workout supplement with creatine before you start your workout to maximise your session.
Walk while on calls
Working at a desk for long hours can negatively affect your body. So the next time you have calls or meetings, pick up your phone and walk around your cabin. If working from home, you can walk on a manual treadmill. You can also take short walks during your break, which will help improve your concentration and mood.
If walk meetings are not possible, opt to stand instead of sitting. This will also improve your productivity, and even though standing is not exercise per se, it’s better than sitting.
Conclusion
With the above ways, it is easy to include exercise in your busy schedule. 150 minutes a week or 30 minutes for 5 days a week of physical activity is good enough for a healthy working body. Finding an exercise you enjoy will make it easier for you to stick to the active routine. Just be creative about it!
Author Info: By healthyandkhush.com
Summary:
Healthy and Khush is a blog dedicated to sharing science-based tips and hacks that will help you lose weight and keep it off.
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