Random Acts of Exercise Near and dear to each of us is the desire to be more physically fit. The idea of accomplishing this might seem impossible. Exercise takes up to much time, and we don’t have any extra time to spare. It can be expensive to join a health club or buy workout clothes. Exercise comes with the risk of being sore or injured. But there is a way to get in better shape without any of that. The goal is to get our muscles moving, we can do that by making some easy changes in our daily habits. Walk in instead of using the drive up window. In a conversation I was having with someone visiting from Europe, we were discussing some differences between the United States and Europe. He commented that Europe does not have many drive up windows. People had to get out of the car and go in to do their banking, pick up laundry, fill a prescription or get carryout food. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons that Europe doesn’t have nearly the obesity problem that we do here. It’s just a few extra steps with some extra get ups and a sit downs but every motion added to the day counts. Park at the far ends of the parking lot. Use the time, normally spent circling around looking for a close parking place, to walk from a further away space instead. The far ends of the lot always have open spaces. Parking for work, shopping or what ever the errand, use that as a way to add steps. It really doesn’t take any more time and every one of those extra steps helps. Over the course of a week we can actually walk a few miles just by parking further away. We can start doing some tasks ourselves that we currently pay others to do for us. Mowing the yard, washing our car, pushing the shopping cart, with our groceries, to the car. We don’t have a health care crisis in our country we have a fitness crisis, brought on in part by having other people do our chores for us. Doing our own gardening, trimming and weeding are not that hard but all that bending and stretching is very good for our under exercised bodies. House work is a golden opportunity to get some great exercise. Vacuuming, sweeping and mopping are great for getting our arms moving, especially if we really reach out using long stretching motions. Dusting is good for the leg muscles that support our knees because of all the bending down and then stretching up on our tip toes to reach the higher places. Look at cleaning not as a chore but as a workout. A house with stairs provides a built in way to a full leg strengthening workout. Make 4 easy trips up and down once in the morning and once in the evening. A good time is after warming up with the house work. Take every opportunity to stretch. When ever a commercial comes on while watching TV stand up and reach for the ceiling, then do an easy squat, repeat that motion till the show is back on. Stretch out in bed before getting up in the morning. Sitting in the recliner reach out with the toes and then point them at the ceiling. These kinds of stretches can be done all during the day. Get creative and find new times to stretch, bend and reach. Standing around waiting is a good time to do this excellent abdominal toning exercise. Pull in the stomach muscles as hard as comfortably possible and hold them in for about 10 seconds. Let off the tension and relax then repeat that motion several times, work up to 25 repetitions. To get an even better all around workout: Do 5 facing straight ahead and then do 5 with your upper body turned slightly to the right side. Do 5 more turned slightly to the left side before finishing with 10 more facing forward again. Work at a desk all day? There are ways to get more motion into the day even for the desk worker. When taking a break use the water fountains and rest rooms that are further away. Make sure to get up at least once per hour and walk to that further water fountain, more steps and that necessary 8 glasses of water will be added to the day. Every motion done now, that wasn’t done before, is one more step toward better physical fitness. When these ideas are combined with three to five 30 minute walks each week, there will usually be a noticeable improvement in our energy level, along with increased ability to do physical tasks without tiring as quickly as before. Adding more motion to the day will add quality to our lives. Dave
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 20:48:50 +0000
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