How to Get More Exercise While Performing Everyday Tasks.

When days and schedules fill up with “life”, it’s all too easy to stop exercising, casting into the “non-essential task” category.  But you know better, i.e., that there’s nothing more important than your good health and that frequent exercise is essential to maintaining it.

Still, and until someone figures out how to pack a day with a few additional hours, some of us legitimately don’t have time for even one more thing.  So what’s a body that wants to get in motion do?  Easy: add exercise into the mix of your everyday “essentials”.  Here are three quick examples to help you get started:

Add Strength: Any time you’re already lifting something, you have an opportunity to exercise by adding a few reps to the task.  While lifting a laundry basket or picking up your kids, don’t just do it once, do it several times in a row.  Does your evening end with a little TV viewing?  Then get yourself a pair of right-sized barbells and curl or press while you watch.

Improve Endurance: Whether sitting at your desk at work, standing by your stove waiting for water to boil, or standing in line at the grocery store, you have an opportunity to improve your endurance. While you wait, add some wall squats or standing calf raises by standing on tip-toes. Remember those grocery bag arm strengtheners? Hold your arms straight out to the side for 15-30 seconds. Try to maintain the hold a bit longer each time you do it.

Flexibility: Sitting at a desk or playing on the floor with the kids is a great time to add some stretches to your day. Twisting in a firm chair not only loosens up back muscles but helps improve breathing and circulation. Gently pulling each arm across the body, or each leg towards your chest are all easily done while playing blocks or waiting for your turn at a board game.

You get the idea: it’s not all that difficult to get into a steady habit of exercise when you make better use of the time and circumstances available to you. Of course, the more exercise becomes a habit, the more you’re going to cherish a hot bath or shower when all your day’s work is done.  But if a poor-performing water heater is making that more difficult than it needs to be, then one quick call to Your 1 Plumber is all it takes to get your water heater to play ball.