Five easy ways to add exercise to your busy schedule

By Claire Perry



Sticking to a healthy diet is arguably easier to implement than its partner in healthy living – exercise. Exercise can be more daunting as it requires serious time and effort – or does it? Rescu. reveals five ways you can sneak exercise into your schedule without too much strain.

To exercise requires motivation. Without motivation, we are left only with excuses. Think of all those we have given to ourselves and others over the years: No time; Too tired; Back ache; Head ache; Too cold; Too hot; Nothing to wear. Rather than making excuses to get out of exercise, we should be finding reasons to exercise. There are plenty! Apart from lowering your blood pressure and cholesterol, exercise also relieves emotional stress, eases physical tension, and results in a more confident, fit, and toned you!



And you don’t need to rearrange your life to exercise, rather you can slot it into your existing schedule and it may even become an activity you begin to look forward to – some ‘me’ time.



Here are some ways exercise can appear – almost unnoticed – in your hectic schedule:

1. Taking the stairs instead of the lift up to your office, up from the car park, and at shopping centres.
2. Walking during morning tea and lunch breaks, and eat back at your desk – this will also encourage you to pack your own meals rather than buying a muffin or hot chips, as you probably won’t have time to enjoy these once you get back to the office. Also, after returning from your walk, you will probably feel less inclined to ruin your diet with a sugary snack.
3. Squeezing your buttocks together while seated at your desk. Do this for ten times, tighten your buttock muscles so that you feel yourself rising, hold for a few seconds, then release. This will increase your heart rate and burn calories, while strengthening the largest muscles in your body.
4. Doing crunches, lunges and squats during the ad breaks of your weekly TV programs. This will build muscle and boost your metabolism so you burn calories faster. You will also see and feel a difference in your body shape if you do them daily.
5. Catching up with friends by walking to the shops, or along a scenic walking path, rather than meeting at a café over coffee and cake.            

References / Further Reading:

Exercise: 7 benefits of regular physical activity

Online articles on benefits of exercise and activity:  Article 1 and Article 2