Written By Elizabeth Long / Reviewed By Ray Spotts

Staying active is an essential part of being healthy for humans. It strengthens bones and muscles, improves fitness and generally keeps us well and better equipped to handle illness and aging. As children, many of us will have enjoyed running around the playground and playing sports with friends. 

But as adults, between extended work hours, balancing caring commitments and general life admin, it can be difficult to get any exercise at all, let alone the amount that we ideally need. In fact, 1.4 billion adults are considered insufficiently active worldwide. 

So how can we hack time and make our workout routine work for us? We take a look.

Fake your commute

With many of us now working from home or in hybrid roles, hopefully this means that you’ve gained the time you would have historically lost to your commute. Whilst it might not be possible every day, continuing to get up earlier than you need can be a good way to get exercise into your day.

There’s no need to get up at the crack of dawn, but even fitting in a short 10-minute walk before you sit down at your desk, or at the end of the day, can be a great way to get moving. It has the added benefit of acting as a separator between your work and home life, meaning that you’re less likely to bring your work into your personal life and cause yourself stress. 

Whilst cleaning your teeth

Those two minutes, twice a day, where you clean your teeth are ripe for activity. If you’ve ever stared in the mirror and got bored before the two minutes are up, then why not use this as an opportunity to do something useful instead? 

If you have an electric toothbrush, then many of them have timers that buzz after 30 seconds to signal for you to move to a different area of your mouth. Why not use this as a signal for exercise?

For the first 30 seconds, do one exercise, and then each time the toothbrush buzzes, change to another. Squats and standing leg raises are great options, or even just marching on the spot. Make sure to not do anything too energetic, as you don’t want to choke. 

During meetings

If you’re on a work call and you’re not on camera, then take the chance to stand up away from your computer if you don’t need your screen. Standing desks are well-known for their health benefits, but they’re not available to everyone, so make sure to get the most out of the times that you can stand up and work.

Doing gentle stretches or even taking a walk around the room with your headset on can mean that you’re getting active and getting productive. 

If you are working from home, there may be some meetings that you can take whilst on a walk outside, although it’s advisable to let your colleagues know that you’re not going to be at your desk, and check that won’t cause any problems.

If you’re in the office and you have a meeting with someone in person, why not suggest a walking meeting? A change of scenery might help inspire you to find a solution. 

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Written By:

Elizabeth Long graduated with a degree in English Language, and then travelled to different countries to expand her views and experience different cultures. She now writes meaningful posts designed to give readers helpful take-home points that they can act on in their own lives. 

Reviewed By:

Founder Ray Spotts has a passion for all things natural and has made a life study of nature as it relates to health and well-being. Ray became a forerunner bringing products to market that are extraordinarily effective and free from potentially harmful chemicals and additives. For this reason Ray formed Trusted Health Products, a company you can trust for clean, effective, and healthy products. Ray is an organic gardener, likes fishing, hiking, and teaching and mentoring people to start new businesses. You can get his book for free, “How To Succeed In Business Based On God’s Word,” at www.rayspotts.com.