Due to the busy lifestyle many people have today, they probably don’t have much time to go to the gym. Aside from that, because of the stress people experience in their lives, they tend to slack off and rest during their free time, not making any room for exercise or any physical activity. Following this habit could have adverse effects, like increasing unwanted weight and developing cardiovascular diseases.
That’s why even when you’re busy, try to find time to spend at least 15 minutes a day for any physical activity. You could lose weight, build muscle, improve your cardiovascular fitness, improve your flexibility and stamina, and become healthier overall just by doing some exercise.
Fitness has been considered an essential part of good health. When you have a healthy lifestyle, you’re more likely to have the physical strength to ward off many diseases and illnesses. Healthy lifestyles are also linked to better overall health and well-being. Some people who practice a physical fitness routine report being able to enjoy a better quality of sleep.
If you’re one of those busy people who want to have less gym time but want to squeeze in daily exercise and stay healthy, here are some things you could do.
- Lift Weights While In The Office
If you’re a beginner who wants to increase your muscle and bone strength and even add some weight to your physique, lifting light weights might be a great way to start. Lifting light weights is believed to have many benefits. You don’t need to lift 20 pounds of weight to see results.
Lifting light weights with more repetitions would help enhance your muscle strength. Aside from that, lifting lighter weights could help provide a better range of motion and increase your flexibility and muscle endurance.
The great thing about lifting light weights is you could do your routines any time of the day, and you could do it while in the office. You could lift light weights during your 5-minute meeting break or for a few minutes during lunchtime.
- Do High-Intensity Interval Training
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a high-intensity cardiovascular training regime alternating with brief periods of high-intensity aerobic exercise with short periods of low-intensity anaerobic exercise. HIIT is believed to be effective for weight loss, improving fitness, improving body composition, and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
One of the known benefits of HIIT is burning off more calories in a short period compared to when running or jogging for hours. In addition, HIIT is said to be one of the most effective methods of burning fat because it targets a muscle group through repetitive contractions rather than by alternating fatigue levels between different muscle groups. When you regularly perform HIIT, you’d find your metabolism would also rise significantly, which would increase the rate at which you burn calories.
- Focus On Full-Body Exercises
If you only have, say, 30 minutes of spare time for exercise within the day, it’s best to focus on full-body exercises rather than doing targeted exercises. Doing full-body exercises would ensure all the muscles in your body are engaged and worked out. Here are some of the full-body exercises you could do.
- Push-Ups
By lowering and raising the upper body, push-ups work the large muscle groups, specifically the triceps, biceps, triceps lateral, upper back, deltoid muscles, and upper torso as a whole. It also has known additional benefits for the back, upper back, and midsection.
Another essential aspect of push-ups is their believed effectiveness in developing the quality and density of the core. The abdominals are responsible for a lot of the postures—sitting, walking, lying, and a host of other movements. By learning how to do the proper form when performing push-ups, you may be taking a giant step toward strengthening your core, which is one of the most critical muscles for balancing the body and facilitating movement.
- Squats
Squats are an effective exercise for both improving core strength and increasing overall body strength and fitness. A squat is essentially a power exercise where the trainee squats down from a standing start and quickly stands up. During the squat, both the hamstring and quadricep muscles are activated, as well as the back and gluteal muscles. Squats are known to be an effective exercise for improving your core strength and functional power and building lower back and abdominal strength.
- Burpees
Burpees are an exercise routine that combines several exercises to target multiple body areas like the arms, legs, and core. It may be an excellent way to build up the quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves without adding weight. However, the movement itself is mainly an anaerobic workout. But over time it could also be used aerobically as a warm-up exercise.
- Bike To Work
There are many known reasons why adding cycling to your fitness routine may be beneficial. Biking is a great way to commute to work, school, or the store. In addition to being a safe, economical form of transportation, you could save money by not paying gas money. Biking could improve your cardiovascular system, reduce your risk of serious injury, and improve your mood.
- Planks During Breaks
Planking is a straightforward exercise you could do anywhere, and it only takes at most 5 minutes a day to engage a lot of areas in your body. One great benefit of planking is that it helps build up the muscles in your thighs, hips, and buttocks, as well as those in your lower back, glutes, and groin muscles.
Another benefit of planking is that it works the core muscles. The core muscles are located in the abdomen, pelvis, lower back, and ribs. If you maintain good posture while performing this exercise, since you’re contracting and relaxing the muscles in your body, it could help strengthen the core muscles. This is a significant benefit, especially if you want to work on your overall strength, fitness level, and muscle tone.
Summary
Doing regular physical exercise lowers blood pressure and decreases body fat, leading to improved cardiovascular health. That’s why it’s important to squeeze a few minutes of your time into doing some regular exercise. Sometimes it doesn’t take too much to add some physical activity to your schedule, like lifting weights or planking during your office breaks.
When you have the time, it’s also more beneficial to do full-body workouts or HIIT to make the most out of the short time you spend on exercise. Lastly, it’d be best to cycle to work so you could save money on gas while easily adding some physical activity during your day.