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Sneak in Your Fitness

It’s not always easy to fit in exercise every day. But if there is one simple thing that you can do to improve the way you look, feel and function, it’s exercising. “Other than quitting smoking, there is nothing more powerful you can do to promote healthy living than leading a physically active life,” says Dr. Tim Church, director of the preventive medicine laboratory at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. Official recommendations suggest that every American should get in at least 30 and, for weight management, up to 90 minutes of activity on most days of the week. While that may sound daunting, it doesn’t have to be. You can sneak in physical activity that can accumulate to meet your daily exercise quota. Here, simple ways to get more active.

Plant Exercise Cues

How often do you start the week with good intentions, but by Friday realize that you never managed to fit in all (if any) of your workouts? The toughest part is the execution—going from not exercising to exercising. It’s so easy to be distracted and do something else instead.

“Environmental cues can be used as reminders of your planned behavior,” says Joseph Donnelly, professor and the director of the Energy Balance Laboratory at the Center for Physical Activity and Weight Management at the University of Kansas in Kansas City. “Place sneakers or a ball or weight in plain view so that they are hard to avoid.” Since familiar sights become easy to tune out, switch your triggers and where you place them every week or so.

Change Your Exercise Mentality

It’s human nature to seek the easy way out, and that means expending the least amount of energy at whatever task is at hand. “Rather than avoid going the extra step in your daily routine, seek ways to be more active,” says David Nieman, professor and director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. 

Most people don’t realize how much a few extra minutes of moving actually count. A superfit person often scoffs at the idea that anything but a pure hour of high-intensity sweating is exercise. A sedentary person may undervalue the beneficial health effects from even a few minutes of activity.

Taking a flight of stairs might take 10 seconds, but it gives a healthy dose of vigorous movement. Walking across the hall to speak to a colleague, rather than sending an e-mail, gets muscles moving and gives your back a break from prolonged sitting. Choosing the farthest possible parking spot not only gives you a few minutes of brisk walking, you get an added calorie burn when you walk back to your car holding heavy shopping bags. 

Walk Your Dog

Your dog needs to move as much as you do (and that means walking, not just getting put out into the back yard), so commit to twice-daily walks. But keep your pooch on a short leash! “Retractable leashes are a cop-out,” says Laura Madden, fitness director of the Scottsdale Athletic Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. “Use a 6-foot leash, so you’re forced to pick up your pace.”

But use caution before you decide to run, skate or ride a bike to walk your dog. Few dogs are fit and/or strong enough to move fast for long distances; medium or small dogs are usually better off walking only. And tender paws can get bruised from too much pounding on concrete roads and sidewalks. Always build a dog up slowly to longer or faster walks.

Walk While You Talk

Moving during activities when you are usually sedentary can add up to big calorie-burning benefits. “Making the switch from sitting to standing, or even walking, while you talk on the phone can help you sneak more movement into your day,” says Amy Dixon, the group fitness manager of Equinox, a fitness club in Santa Monica, Calif.

So whether you are at work at your desk or at home on the sofa, if the phone rings, stand up. When you know you have a series of phone calls to make, use a portable phone on a treadmill or other cardio machine, moving at a slow speed or low intensity during the conversation. Or take your cell phone outside for a stroll around your community.

Rethink Your Social Life

If you’ve been wondering why you’re gaining weight—or finding it hard to lose—consider your typical day: You may sit for eight to 10 hours working. You come home pooped and sit on the sofa to soak up what’s on TV. Or you may meet buddies to sit at a bar and have a few drinks. Or you take your kids to a movie to sit and chomp on theater snacks for a couple of hours. Or you meet friends for dinner, doing more eating and sitting.

Redefine what it means to relax, and make movement a part of your social life. “Any extra exercise will keep you from feeling sluggish and can help prevent weight gain,” says Carla Wolper, a registered dietitian and assistant professor at Columbia University Medical Center.

Some ideas: Meet friends to go dancing. Go outside and play with the kids. Skip happy hour and meet friends for a power walk in the park. Go bowling. Play tennis.

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Scrub, Sweep, Push, Pull

Keep your body moving by keeping your home spotless. Just keep in mind that what makes your life easier may also make you fatter: Every task you delegate to an electric operator may bring you one notch higher on your belt loop.

A 2003 study in the journal Obesity Research measured the calorie burn of people doing chores with motorized help and the old-fashioned way: by hand. Relying on a dishwasher and washing machine burned 50 percent fewer calories (or less) for each task.

But not all motorized help is worthless. A 2003 study in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found that vacuuming a rug burned a similar amount of calories as a slow walk on a treadmill—you are walking when you use a vacuum, after all. Using upright and canister vacuums without power-assist features burned up to 10 percent more calories.

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Give Yourself 10

You may already be conditioned to take 10 deep breaths when you’re feeling stressed. You should also adopt the give-yourself-10 rule during the periodic breaks you get during your day. “You can accumulate a workout’s worth of conditioning exercises by filling up pauses with 10 reps of situation-specific exercises,” Dixon says. Some ideas:

• When you first wake up, do 10 push-ups and 10 squats.
• Do 10 butt squeezes while you’re waiting in line.
• Do 10 lunges while you’re waiting for the laundry machines to finish their cycle.
• Do 10 overhead presses while holding a bag of sugar or canister of salt as you wait for the pot to boil.
• Do 10 heel lifts on your toes when in the checkout line.
• Do 10 jumping jacks during every commercial of your favorite show.
• Do 10 kicks and 10 knee lifts during the beginning and ending credits of a TV movie.

 A Fitness Together Clive trainer can provide even more tips to sneaking your fitness in...see one today!