You and I both understand how important movement is to health, and our sedentary lifestyles aren’t helping matters much. Only around 20% of individuals meet their daily exercise recommendations, according to research, and this inactivity is associated with several chronic health issues. In several cases, we need to find ways to move more in everyday life.
However, trying to find additional time for a workout might seem daunting when you already have a busy schedule. Therefore, we’ve put up a list of suggestions for subtly enhancing your daily activities and keeping your body active. Even though a few more minutes of exercise here and there may not seem like much, they can add up!
How To Move More Regularly
1. Get A Fitness Tracker
Having a fitness tracker is one of the best ways to move more. Investing in a wearable fitness tracker, like a wristwatch, is one of the simplest methods to monitor your physical activity, which is one of the greatest ways to be proactive about improving it. These gadgets may help you determine when you should be moving more by giving you a more accurate sense of how much you’re moving.
There’s evidence that wearing a wearable fitness tracker may boost mobility naturally, in addition to making it simpler to measure how much you walk. For instance, a systematic review found that using a fitness tracker increased daily step counts by 1,800 and increased walking time by 40 minutes on average, in addition to resulting in a weight reduction of around 1 kg.
2. Walk In Your Breaks
You may need to make the most of the leisure you do get during the day, even if it seems too brief to be useful if you discover that a hectic work schedule is one of the biggest barriers preventing you from engaging in additional physical exercise. For instance, research was done to evaluate the advantages of walking for shorter periods—ten minutes—versus longer sessions—thirty minutes.
When compared to a control group that was not given a walking regimen at all, the researchers discovered that while the participants who completed longer 30-minute walks eventually saw bigger improvements in various health metrics, the group that divided their walks into three short 10-minute bouts still saw significantly increased physical activity and improved diastolic blood pressure.
So, you may still gain by dividing up your physical activity into shorter bursts when you have the opportunity, even on the days when you are unable to carve out thirty minutes or more of your schedule for a lengthy walk. During your lunch break or your ten-minute work breaks, you may go for a walk.
3. Take The Stairs
Taking the stairs instead of lifts is one of the amazing tips to move more in everyday life. Choosing to use the stairs has several advantages over using the lift, even if the latter is more convenient and can enable you to reach your workplace sooner. Stair climbing improves your muscles and enhances leg power.
It has also been shown to support weight maintenance. Working upstairs may also benefit you later in life since senior individuals who have leg strength are less likely to suffer severe injuries.
4. Walk While On A Call
Most likely, you cannot conduct all of your Zoom meetings using your phone. However, you had best believe that holding business meetings while strolling about might have a significant impact on your well-being if you have them scheduled throughout the day.
For those who are used to exercising with heavy barbells, walking may feel like insufficient physical exertion. However, pause to consider how many calls you get in a given day. Imagine engaging in physical activity for the duration of that period.
The number of meeting minutes you take in, even if it’s simply strolling about your flat, will add up quickly. You won’t believe how much walking may speed up your recuperation after strenuous, high-intensity squat exercises. Put on some headphones to enjoy a hands-free experience and get rid of your stiffness. It is one of the amazing ways to move more in everyday life.
5. A Quick Workout In The Morning
A quick workout in the morning is one of the ways to move more. If you often find yourself starting the day with the best of intentions but are too exhausted and unmotivated to work out after a demanding day of taking care of your obligations, you might find it more beneficial to work out first thing in the morning!
Starting the day with a morning exercise might help you cross your physical activity objective off your to-do list straight away, instead of delaying it for later in the day when you could lose desire or run out of time owing to your schedule.
Exercise in the morning may also aid in the development of habits, hunger, and eating patterns later in the day, as well as the control of metabolism brought on by working out while fasting, all of which can have a significant influence over time. While adjusting to an earlier schedule could take some time, there may be significant long-term benefits.
6. Adopt A Dog
Now can be the ideal moment to bring a dog into your household if you’ve been wanting one for a long time. Dogs need regular walks since they are energetic creatures. Getting out of the routine and taking many walks each day is one of the easiest methods to increase your daily mileage.
Consider joining a dog-walking group in your neighborhood if you are unable to commit to getting a new pet. In this manner, you may pick up and drop off your new pal whenever it suits you best. According to a study, people who own dogs have lower chances of cardiovascular disease and have better lives. It is one of the wonderful ways to move more in everyday life.
7. Have A Standing Desk
Just move your normal office workstation to a standing desk to enhance physical exercise without feeling like you’re moving at all. The sitting profession is a primary cause of sedentary behavior.
In addition to reducing sedentary behaviors throughout the workday, using a sit-stand desk or an elevated laptop stand has been shown to significantly improve insulin resistance and fasting triglycerides, two critical aspects of metabolic health.
Begin with standing for twenty minutes, followed by ten minutes of sitting. Next, carry out the order again. As your standing desk setup becomes more comfortable, you may begin to stand for extended amounts of time—for example, forty-five minutes out of every hour. You might place a walking pad below your desk to take things a step further. That may significantly boost how much you move while working.
8. Change Your Mode of Transportation
Changing your type of commute is one of the wonderful tips to move more in everyday life. You may have trouble sitting still throughout your commute in addition to sitting for extended periods at work.
Thus, if it’s possible, think about taking a different route to work, like bicycling or walking, to enable you to automatically enhance your daily physical activity. Bonus point: While sitting in traffic for hours on end is never enjoyable, it will probably be a terrific mood enhancer.
If you are unable to walk or bike to work because of the distance, the weather, or safety concerns, you may still use this suggestion. To make it take longer to go to your job, you may, for instance, start parking further away from the building where you work.
Alternatively, you might choose to use the stairs rather than the lift to slightly increase your heart rate before starting your day’s tasks.
9. Try Some New Sports
Like with video workouts, your initial thought when considering boosting your physical activity level is generally something like lifting weights or jogging at the gym. But remember to think about participating in sports as well!
Engaging in sports and leisure pursuits such as tennis and cycling has been linked to a decreased risk of obesity in people 40 years of age and older. It’s not hard to include sports-based exercise in your life. Purchasing baseball gloves and a softball, for example, would allow you to play catch with your loved ones or friends in place of watching TV.
You may also check out the recreational options in your town or city, or you could give your neighborhood gym a call to see if they have adult leagues for the sport you want to play. It is one of the best ways to move more in everyday life.
Even If You Work Out, Do You Still Need To Move More?
Any movement that requires the utilization of energy and your muscles is considered physical exercise. Physical exercise in everyday life may take many different forms, just as at the gym. It can range from working out to dusting your apartment.
Conversely, organized, systematic, and repeated physical activity falls under the category of exercise. Enhancing or preserving physical fitness is the aim of the exercise. Thus, you’re receiving a lot of physical activity if you visit the gym four or six times a week for exercise. However, you cannot be physically active outside of the gym, even if you like it.
If you spend more time sitting than standing or walking, you may be mostly sedentary and need to find ways to move more. Even if you routinely engage in intense exercise, instead of having long stretches of inactivity interspersed with comparatively brief bursts of movement, you may incorporate movement into your whole lifestyle by adding additional movement throughout the day with easy workouts.
FAQ
Q: Why is increasing movement important?
A: There is much scientific evidence that physical activity may contribute to a happier and healthier life, regardless of age. Regular exercisers are less likely to suffer from a variety of chronic (long-term) illnesses, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and some malignancies.
Q: In what way do you workout each day?
A: Aim for at least 30 minutes a day of moderate physical exercise as a general objective. You may need to exercise more if you want to reach certain fitness objectives, maintain weight loss, or lose weight. Reducing one’s amount of sitting time is also crucial.
Q: How can I love working out every day?
A: Music, radio, or television might prolong your workout. You may benefit from watching the news while cycling or rowing at the gym. Listening to a podcast or the radio makes the tedious workout on the home treadmill go by more quickly.
