One of the biggest excuses people use for avoiding regular exercise is that they don’t have time for it.
In our busy, fast-paced world, who can spare 30 to 60 minutes a day for working out?
You may be surprised by just how much of your day is “wasted” on non-essential activities that you could use for exercise – for most people it will be way more than 30 minutes.
Examples: You spend 2 hours getting ready for work in the morning, taking more than 30 minutes to iron your outfit, make and pack your lunch, and other activities that you could have done the night before and left room for a morning workout routine.
You finish eating dinner at 6:30pm and your favorite television show doesn’t start until 8:00pm – so you channel surf through mindless shows that you don’t care about for 1 1/2 hours – when you could have easily squeezed in a great workout!
I mention that only because “time” is such a relative term and most of us have a lot more time than we realize.
But okay – let’s assume that your day is packed full of very essential activities from the moment you awaken until the moment you fall asleep at night, and you truly cannot spare 30 minutes or more for exercise.
How to exercise with limited time
This article is going to share some easy ways to squeeze in 10 minutes or less of exercise several times a day, and all of those short bursts of activity are nearly as good as a full length workout.
1) Every time you use the restroom throughout the day, you could squeeze in 10 squats, lunges or jumping jacks.
2) You could park your car farther away from your workplace and stores, and walk there briskly for 5-10 minutes.
3) You could take the stairs instead of the elevator.
4) You could keep a small set of dumbells in your desk and do curls while you are on “hold” on the phone.
5) You could use your 10-15 minute work breaks to walk briskly around your workplace, either inside or outside. Ditto for part of your lunch hour.
6) You could do stomach crunches or sit ups during television commercial breaks.
7) You could walk or march in place during commercials too.
8) You could do buttock clenches while standing at the sink washing dishes.
9) You could “bench press” your kids while playing in the backyard (only if they are small enough, of course – don’t try it with a teenager unless you’re really strong).
10) While shopping, if you see that the checkout lane is busy, you could keep walking around the store rather than standing in line for 10+ minutes. When the lane dwindles down to just a few people, then get in line.
See? These are all so easy to squeeze into your day, even if you have a very busy schedule! No more excuses for not exercising at least somewhat during your day – you just have to make time.