Learn How to be Super fit Using 10-Minute Exercise Bursts
The recommended amount of exercise determined by fitness gurus and physicians is 30 minutes to 1 hour per day. This may be more than you have time for, especially if your job is demanding or you have children.
Keep Your Eyes Open
If your schedule doesn’t allow you a big chunk of time in which to work out every day, you will have to make do with several smaller chunks. The good news is that there is always time to get in shape, even if it simply means moving around more in your spare time and on your day off. Use household chores as a chance to exercise and get your home clean at the same time! Gardening and walking the dog around the block are great everyday activities that need to be done anyway. And they all count as exercise.
Don’t Waste Your Mini-breaks on Coffee
A couple of 10-minute windows in your day may not seem like enough time to get a good workout, but a recently conducted study suggests differently. It determined that men and women who took 10-minute walks or engaged in other exercise for a similar amount of time had a higher probability of exercising regularly. Also, they lost more weight on the whole than participants who worked out in 1-hour intervals.
What the Professionals Have to Say
Exercise physiologist Glenn Gaesser’s recent study conducted in Virginia involved men and women who exercised for 10 minutes at a time. The startling results showed that these men and women were able to dramatically improve their overall health by conducting 15 of these 10-minute sessions per week for one month. At the end of that time, Gaesser found his subjects as fit as men and women who were 20 years younger.
Breaking your workout up into small chunks to better fit lifestyle has many benefits. Harold Taylor, who specializes in time management, says that short bursts of exercise can boost your self-esteem and keep you motivated to stay healthy and keep moving. Otherwise, you can become frustrated that you don’t have time to work out and give up altogether.
Just a Supplement
Small workout sessions are great solutions for busy workdays and lagging enthusiasm, but they shouldn’t replace your regular routine. If you are continuously time-challenged and don’t anticipate being able to frequent the gym anytime in the near future, there are other ways to work a real exercise program into your day. You don’t have to do them all, just pick the best ones for your situation and stick to it.
* Take a 5- or 10-minute walk down the street when you go out to pick up the morning paper or let the dog out.
* If you’re stuck at home to care for a sick child, work on the exercise bike or Stairwalker while your “patient” is asleep.
* Jump rope or do jumping jacks. This burns as much as 90 calories in 10 minutes.
* Practice upright push-ups in between household chores by pushing in and out from the shoulder.
* Go outside and shoot some baskets or play tag with your children after dinner.
* Take a hint from exercise instructor Sheila Cluff, who stores dumbbells in her bathroom so she can do a few sets before bedtime. Cluff is a professional fitness expert at The Palms in Palm Springs, CA.
* Walk around the field while your son has a baseball practice.