Being fit and healthy is something that shouldn’t be compromised on. Due to tight schedules and the tiring hustles and bustles of the day, not everyone has the time to go in the gym everyday and put in two hours of hard work, but that’s not an excuse to live an unhealthy lifestyle.
This article will be all about simple ways to stay fit if you’re busy and having little time on your hands. Let’s jump into it.
Walking: I have written about the importance of walking 10000 steps in a previous article. Walking is probably the easiest cardiovascular form of exercise there is and is one of the simple ways to stay fit if you’re super busy. It is however one that a lot of people still find difficult to do.
There are very natural ways of getting yourself to walk daily. For example, if your work place isn’t far away from your home, you could decide to walk to work every day. This may mean getting up a bit earlier than you’re used to, but it’s worth it. If you always have to take a car to work because of distance, then you may consider parking or dropping off at some distance away from your place of work and walk the distance.
For those who may find this inconvenient still, then evening walks are good alternatives and can even be more relaxing. If you have a dog or some other partner to walk with, then it’s great. Listening to some music while doing this would add some more fun to it.
Bike riding: this is also cardiovascular in nature. It can also be just as relaxing as walking. A 30 minutes bike ride after work is a total body workout even if it might not feel like it because of the fun nature of the exercise. Just like all other cardiovascular exercises, it has a lot of health benefits that you want to tap into.
Eating healthy: eating healthy is a crucial aspect of staying fit and healthy. This alone is okay when combined with some light physical routine especially if your goal is not to build big muscles. If you do not have the time to workout properly, then you should at least put the right things inside your body. This is not as easy as it seems but with some conscious effort can be done.
Eating a balanced diet and in the right quantity is important. Avoid eating junks and things that contain a lot of added sugar. Eating late into the night is also discouraged to prevent accumulation of fat, bloating, constipation etc.
Drinking a lot of water is always helpful too. A gallon of water (about 3.785ltrs) a day is recommended and should be evenly spaced out throughout the day as drinking too much water within a short period of time during the day can be harmful to your body. Find out more about that here.
10 minutes quick workout: Sometimes, we indeed have very little time for workouts but perhaps not too little for a quick 10 minutes workout. It doesn’t have to be 10 minutes exactly. The point is that with a little adjustment, you may be able to squeeze in a quick workout on even the busiest of days.
The length of time taken to workout does not matter very much. What really matters is what you’re able to do in that time and 10 minutes is enough time to complete a good workout and get the body activated. With this, you can set the body up for some calories burning that may last for much longer after. I’ll give a list of exercises you can do in 10 minutes without gym equipment:
- Push-ups: this had to be there, right? there’s a push up program that I follow sometimes that involves me completing 210 push-ups in 10minutes or less. I call it the pyramid push-up program and it involves doing 21 push-ups ten times with very little rest in between. You can check out a simplified way to achieve this here. While doing this, it is very important to make sure you’re doing your push-ups correctly first. Form is very important. If you want to learn how to do push-ups properly or ensure you have been doing yours right, look here.
- Jumping jacks: the jumping jacks is a good warm-up exercise and can be really helpful even as a full-blown workout exercise. Doing a few reps of jumping jacks helps to get the blood flowing.
- Burpees: there’s a lot of criticism of this exercise on the internet. People say it has no real value and only makes you tired, but I disagree. it still remains a good way to wake your body up and allow blood flow to different areas. It helps with your flexibility and coordination too. check out how to do burpees.
- Pull ups: You do not need to have pull up bars to do this at home. All you need is an opening above a door level with something that can hold your weight to hang onto.
- Planking: There are memes on the internet about how time gets really slow when performing this exercise. No lies, planking may not be as easy as it looks but it is definitely as effective as they come. This exercise isn’t only meant to burn your belly fat. It is in fact a full body exercise that activates many muscles in your body within a short time of performing it.
Whether you decide to do these exercises in isolation or perform them in a combination is your choice, but 10 minutes is definitely enough to cramp two or three of them into a 10 minutes program and give yourself a good workout for the day.
Conclusion
That’s my list of ways to stay fit even within a busy schedule. There are definitely more ways and you’re encouraged to figure them out and implement them. Get rid of all your excuses today and start making effort to look after yourself physically. You do not have to be jacked up to be fit and healthy but it is important you do not live a sedentary lifestyle. You can do that by following some of these simple ways to stay fit that have been mentioned above. Keep in mind that eating healthy and moving more is the secret to a healthy lifestyle!
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