Exercise – Get It In When You Can Fit It In

Weight gain seems easier as you grow older, particularly as the motivation to exercise also slows down.  However, weight gain is not inevitable, you can turn it around and it does not matter how old you are.  The key is maintaining a healthy diet and remaining active. If exercise is not part of your routine, it’s time to weave some sort of exercise into your daily life. 

Research shows that regular, brisk walking is one of the best exercises we can do for overall fitness.  It suits people of all ages and fitness levels, it’s easy to get started and there’s no complicated technique to learn or equipment to buy. 

Walking is an excellent way to get fit because it uses nearly all the muscles and, as you have to carry your body weight, you can get a good workout from it. It’s also safer on the joints and the back than most other forms of exercise because you’re not jumping up and down, so the impact is low.

Studies have shown that taking a daily 20-minute walk can reduce the risk of heart attack by as much as 50%, it also reduces high blood pressure and helps to burn fat to keep weight under control. 

Walking and other weight bearing exercises (strength training) helps to increase bone mass, which protects against osteoporosis and bone fractures. Strength training will not only help with losing weight but will also trim and tone your body. Age does not matter. It has been shown that women as old as 70 who have started to weight train have improved their body strength within a very short time.

Weight training is an important element in fighting flab; maybe it is the most important.  If you do aerobic exercise, you only burn fat during the exercise but with weight training you burn fat even when you have finished.  The body is still burning fat for up to as much as twelve hours after finishing the exercise whilst it is building the muscles worked, so you can still be burning fat while you are resting.  But that is not the end of the story.

With our busy lifestyles, most of us can justify not exercising. Do these excuses sound familiar?  “If I just had more time, I would be exercising regularly”, “I’m too tired to exercise”, “I don’t want to take another shower” and the list goes on and on. Many folks truly believe these excuses are something totally out of our control and is preventing us from reaching our goals. 

Let’s remove these myths so that you’re positioned for successfully adding exercise to your lifestyle. Your exercise can be broken down into small manageable sessions. You do not need hours and hours to exercise, nor do you need any equipment. You can get it in when you can fit it in. For example, you can use your body weight to do “counter push-ups” while you wait for your morning coffee or do some bicep or tricep exercises using your own body weight or 16 ounce cans from your pantry. Think about ways that you can do some low impact exercise while you’re watching your favorite show. I think you get the idea.

Instead of taking an hour from your busy day to go to the gym or exercise at home, build exercise into activities that you already do. Be creative! Find 10 – 15 minutes periodically during the day to get your exercise in when you can fit it in.  Make it fun and get your family and friends involved.

Don’t wait, start today. Remember, get it in when you can fit it in.