No Time to Exercise?

By Robert Carew

One of the biggest barriers to exercise is time. I hear it a lot. “I just don’t have time” or “I’m too tired to go to the gym after work.”

What I like to tell people is that exercise does not have to mean sweating it out for an hour in the gym. Exercise can be taking the stairs instead of the lift at work, for example. It does not have to be a formal gym routine.

The other thing is that exercise can also be cumulative. What I mean by that is that you can do 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there, as long as it adds up to at least 30 minutes of exercise per day. Any exercise is better than none.

What I have decided to include for this post is 20 ways to increase your physical activity. Pick a couple of them to do each day:

1. Take a walk during your lunch hour
2. Do sit-ups in front of the TV
3. Mow the lawn YOURSELF
4. Take the dogs for a walk
5. Do some gardening
6. Do your own housework
7. Instead of watching TV, take a half hour walk instead
8. Wash the car by hand
9. Take the wheels off your luggage and carry it (if it’s not too heavy)
10. Take a family walk after dinner
11. If you find it difficult getting to the gym after work, try and go before work
12. Do some desk exercises and stretches instead of your coffee break
13. Avoid labour saving devices
14. Play with your kids for half an hour
15. Put some music on and just dance!
16. Walk briskly in the mall
17. Take the long way to the water cooler
18. Park further from your destination and walk
19. Walk to a co-worker’s desk instead of e-mailing or calling them
20. Carry your groceries instead of using a shopping trolley (if there isn’t too much)

If you still can’t find the time to exercise, we have a saying here at the centre: “He who cannot create time for exercise must create time for illness.”