We hear a lot about staying active and exercising as a way to stave off anxiety and depression, staying strong and also building immunity during Covid-19 isolation.
The good news is, unless you have a specific physique you are trying to build, any exercise is good exercise.
From cleaning house, to dancing, to roughhousing with the kids, it all counts.
Here are some ideas for getting exercise without even realising you are exercising:
SIT
Sit in a squat, or pike position on the floor while watching TV. Do not lean against the couch! Sit up with a straight back, clench your buttocks, tighten your core… You will be amazed at the workout you get!
KEGEL IT
Do KEGEL exercises while you are binge watching shows, working at your desk or talking on the phone. It strengthens the muscles under the uterus, bladder, and bowel (large intestine) and burns calories.
Kegel Exercise:
Make sure your bladder is empty
Sit or lie down
Tighten your pelvic floor muscles (tense the muscles that control urine flow)
Hold tight for 3 to 5 seconds
Relax for 3 to 5 seconds
Repeat until you can’t anymore.
FIDGET
Literally fidget more! From tapping your toes to music and twitching your legs to the beat of music. Getting up and sitting back down. Doing laps around your lounge… Did you know ‘fidgeting’ (aka “small micromovements”) can account for up to 350 additional calories burned per day?
DANCE
Put on your favorite 80’s tune and dance around on the spot… You’ll be sweating within ten minutes. Get the kids to join in and learn some fun dance moves together off YouTube. How about hip hop? Anything that elevates your heart rate will do. You will be drenched in sweat at the end of it. Make a point of doing it daily.
On the same note…Impromptu dance parties. Kids or no kids, great Disney songs are fantastic for bringing out your inner child. Blast the tunes, dance around the house, and be absurd. WHO CARES!
WALK AND TALK
On a business or conference call, or doing a daily catch-up call with family or friends? Go for a walk while on the phone. Or even just stand for all of your phone calls. It will not only make you more alert during the call but you will be getting some exercise… you’re going to get so many steps in while on the phone without realizing it!
CLEAN
Make a game out of it, move while you’re cleaning! Add some music and it becomes a dance! Sway those hips while doing the dishes or ironing, Crunch that butt and twerk while vacuuming, you get the idea?!
It is also fun to see how much you can accomplish with a single song blasting at max volume… It will get the blood flowing.
PICNIC
Instead of sitting and gorging yourself at the dining room table or worse, on the couch in front of the TV, why not eat on the floor?
Grab a blanket or a towel, eat in your living room or head out onto your balcony, and make it a picnic! You’ll need to adjust your posture and seating style constantly which will work muscles you did not realize you had!
SQUAT
Sitting in a deep squat, often for long periods, is built into us as a species! We’ve just become soft from sitting in chairs all day long.
Try to do at least 15 minutes of “squat time” each day, sitting in a squat while reading a chapter in a book, or journaling, or answering an email with the laptop on the ground.
PENALTIES
Set yourself (and your family) penalties… Every time somebody says a specific word or does something specific, everyone has to drop and do 20 push-ups…. No exceptions!
LASER COURSE
Set up colored string pulled tightly across doorways or in certain hallways, and you have to go over and under the lasers each time you pass that way. GREAT IDEA: set yourself an obstacle course to get to the fridge!
LEVY
Set yourself a Levy for every treat… Want to have that extra biscuit, do 30 crunches first!
BACKPACK
If you have kids, your kid is a backpack! From piggy back rides to playing horsey, staying active with your kids is really powerful in instilling a love of fitness in them.
BUILD A SWEAT
Anything that sets the heart racing and builds a sweat is fair game… Get the picture? 🙂
There are only 3 rules here….
-Commit to it… do not only do it once, start a routine
-Be safe.. make sure you do activities your body can handle and activities that are safe
-And most of all… HAVE FUN!!!!