The NHS recommends at least 3 hours of moderate exercise per week to stay healthy. But If you are like me and feel intimated by all the super-toned people at the gym here are some ideas you can incorporate into your everyday routine instead;
1. Fidgeting
Although this may annoy anyone you sit next, people who fidget burn around 300 extra calories per day. If you take the average calories content of a pound of body fat to be 3500, (300×365)/3500 = 31.3 pounds is how much weight you could lose in a year, besides the increased muscle tone you would eventually get. Fidgeting doesn’t have to mean simply tapping your foot; other ways include walking around whilst on the phone and getting up from your desk about once every hour to do a few stretches.
2. At-home workout videos
Thanks mainly to YouTube, you can now have a virtual personal trainer for free in your own home. My favourite channel by far is Fitness Blender who have videos for all ages/abilities/muscle groups etc. Alternatively, if you have game such as Just Dance, do a couple of dances for cardio and in between do a few minutes of strength training such as lifting weights (bottles of water work well if you don’t have dumbbells) or doing abs exercises such as crunches.
3. Gardening
Gardening is a great overall workout that you probably you don’t realise you’re doing; 30 minutes digging followed by 30 minutes planting seeds burns around 400 calories! The best part is you’ll have an amazing garden to enjoy in the spring and summer.
4. Dancing
I went properly clubbing for the first time this week, and after a few hour of non-stop dancing my stomach felt like I’d just done 1000 crunches. Okay, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but dancing burns 200-400 calories per hour (the crazier the dancing the better the workout!), and you’ll probably be having too much fun to realise you’re exercising.
5. Ditch the car/bus
This may seem obvious but walk/cycle whenever you can. Although it may be more time consuming in that a 10 minute car/bus journey probably takes 30 minutes to walk, you get to enjoy the fresh air and see some wildlife early in the morning/late in the evening you otherwise wouldn’t see.
