In an ideal world we would all exercise for the minimum recommended 45 minutes a day to ensure we stay fit and have a healthy weight. However most of us don't manage to achieve this in our busy lives. Is there an easy way to increase the amount of exercise we take by fitting it into our lives? We don't have to exercise for 45 minutes all at once. We can incorporate easy exercise into our daily lives for added benefit. With some ingenuity we can increase the amount of exercise we take in many small ways that add up to a significant increase overall.
You need to be resourceful and think about how you can achieve this and what will work for you and your lifestyle. Use a cordless phone and walk around while you talk instead of sitting down. Leave the car an extra half mile away from your office or the shops and walk there. Always use the stairs instead of the elevator. All these can help to get you exercising more every day.
Studies have shown that people who exercise for ten minutes at a time consistently were more likely to keep it up and to lose weight than others who exercised for longer. One study at the Baltimore Johns Hopkins School of Medicine showed that people who were previously sedentary and began exercising for short periods of time the improvement in their health and level of fitness was equal to that of those who exercised for longer. Many people still believe that exercising for less than thirty minutes is not effective but this, and many other studies, have proven this idea to be mistaken.
Exercising for shorter periods can be more motivating and you may be less inclined to avoid it than if you are trying to do longer workouts. it is much easier to keep up this way than to schedule longer sessions then find that you haven't the time or motivation to continue. It takes much less will power to embark on a ten minute workout than a forty five minute workout and many people find this motivates them enough to continue.
Of course, having said that, longer workout periods interspersed with shorter ones is the ideal but don't despair if you can't achieve this all the time. The point is that you do exercise as much as you can fit in and keep your general fitness and health at a much better level than if you don't exercise at all.
One way to ensure that you increase your exercising through small changes in your daily routine is to wear a pedometer. Start by finding out the average number of steps you normally take during the day by wearing it for a few days without trying to increase the amount of steps you take. Once you have a good baseline start increasing your daily steps by walking more. A good number of steps to aim for is 10,000 but this may take you some time to achieve. Wearing a pedometer has been shown to be very effective in increasing the amount of exercise people do. Keep a journal of your achievements and you will be surprised how easy it is to increase the amount of exercise without having to go to the gym! Don't think you have to knock yourself out at the gym to stay fit, you can incorporate these easy exercise ideas into your life and be healthier, less stressed and fit.
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