While everyone knows the tremendous importance of daily exercise, it is difficult to find the time to visit the gym. When you are leading a busy life, lifework, keeping up your home, and perhaps hosting parties, when do you have time to get to the gym? If you are too busy to visit the gym, you can still enjoy daily exercise – with a bit of creativity and determination!
How much daily exercise do you need?
Most experts recommend 20-30 minutes of aerobic daily exercise, which is movement that keeps your heart rate up for the entire duration. Even without the gym, you can find 20-30 minutes for daily exercise. Start thinking outside the box when it comes to daily exercise, and you can indeed enjoy an active heart rate.
Your home can be your gym
Do you have stairs in your home? Walking or jogging up and down your stairs for 20 minutes means that you’ve completed your daily exercise! Even when you’re cleaning the house, you’re burning calories.
Do you own a Wii, or know somebody that has one? If you spend 20 minutes playing tennis or another sport on the Wii with your kids, not only are you enjoying quality family time, but you’re also getting the recommended amount of daily exercise!
Play constitutes “workout” time
You can also go outside with your kids and play ball, start a game of tag, walk the dog, or just have a family outing walking to the park or around the lake. When you play with your children, the activity allows them to learn and grow, and it also provides a way for you to teach them that daily exercise doesn’t have to be boring! Additionally, family togetherness promotes the kind of special emotional bonds that we all need to be healthy individuals.
There are good opportunities to enjoy daily exercise all around you, and you don’t even need to pay an exercise facility’s fees. Even in cold or wet weather, you can walk around your local mall at a brisk pace, which will provide you the daily exercise you need. You can take dance lessons, or help an elderly neighbor with their chores; the possibilities are endless – all you need to do is decide to get active.
Gym “equipment” already in your home
You don’t even have to spend any extra money on fancy equipment! One gallon of liquid, like water or milk, weighs 8 pounds. You can lift weights at home by taking an empty gallon or half gallon milk container and repeating tricep or bicep curls with them, instead of buying weights. You can also lay down right on your floor and do crunches, stretches, yoga, Pilates or any other floor based activity – just make sure to move all the furniture you might have to the edges of your room first. And working out at home means that you have no excuse to skip out on the gym if your fitness clothes are in the laundry. You can exercise at home in your pajamas or sweats.
Working out…at work!
Working out at work is also easy to do. While you might not be able to perform 45 minutes of peak cardiovascular daily exercise in your suit, you can still find small ways to pump up your heart. Even a little daily exercise will go a long way towards increasing your overall health. Park your car a little bit farther away from the entrance to your job, and you’ll enjoy guaranteed daily exercise at least twice a day. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, and you’re not only enjoying a cardiovascular workout, but you’re also strengthening and shaping your thighs by building muscle. If you can practice yoga or stretch during your lunch break, you’ll be relieving tension, as well as encouraging proper blood flow, which is important to help your brain get all the oxygen it needs.
In short, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of ways you can enjoy daily exercise. You simply need to be open to the possibilities that exist all around you!
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