Exercise to stimulate, not to annihilate. The world wasn’t formed in a day, and neither were we. Set small goals and build upon them.
-Lee Haney
It’s Friday! Yes! Another workweek is in the books. I‘m looking forward to the weekend to hopefully get some rest. Unfortunately, my work is not done. Time to check in on my physical fitness activity for the week.
I’ve been keeping up with my walking (remember my Walk It Out post), but I had a setback. I lost my Fitbit for a couple of days. All those steps were wasted, but they count to me!
Anyways, I didn’t go to any exercise classes or do any workouts at home; however, I was able to increase my physical activity level with three simple ways.
- Take the long way. I have to park in a parking garage for work. I normally park on level 7, take the elevator down, and then walk to the office building. This week I did a combination of parking further away from the elevator then taking the stairs down. I also made a conscious effort to get up from my desk to take a lap around the office.
- Get in some “active” TV time. It’s easy to relax and unwind in front of the TV after a long day of work. However, when you are trying to increase your physical activity, TV time is a prime opportunity to get in some exercise time. This week, I devoted my TV time to marching in place. It may not sound like a lot, but trying marching in place in 10 minute increments. I would have marched in place during the commercials, but I normally watch TV programs from the DVR menu. I don’t see most commercials, so it was left, right, left right for me. I’ve never been so tired from watching TV!
- Have a dance party. I love music. Most days, I have music playing while working, cooking, showering, etc. With all this music, the most natural step is to dance. I’m not talking a little side to side motion. I’m talking about all your old school dances (Snake, Roger Rabbit, Perculator, etc.). You know back in the day when everyone danced at the club rather than sitting down. What a great way to raise your heartbeat and reminisce on the good ol days. Go ahead and let loose!
With these three tactics, you’re not spending a whole lot of extra time. I recommend 10 minute sessions and focus on increasing your heart rate. With three 10 minute sessions during the work week, you’ve hit the recommended 150 minutes of moderate exercise as recommended by the CDC. Take a look at this article. A note of caution though. If this is a significant change in your physical activity level, talk this over with your physician first. Also, you can use the “talk test” to determine if you are going too hard. If it’s hard for you to speak a complete sentence, take it easy girlfriend! This is supposed to be fun!
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