No Time to Exercise? No Problem. Discover how to Turn Your Entire House into a gym.
written by john c ashworth, ma, cscs, ces
Are you familiar with the term, "Non-Exercise Activity Thermogensis?" Right, I wasn't either until I reviewed the research being conducted by James Levine, MD of the Mayo clinic. He's the guy leading the charge on "stand-up desks" and the idea that it's not just your exercise that is important, but how much you move outside the gym too.
In fact, a couple of years ago Leigh Mills and I did one of our fitness segments on the topic during our Fitness Friday Segment. I brought in my favorite rocking chair and everything. Click here to watch that episode.
Tonight, we will take a slightly different tact, and show you how to turn your entire house into a gym. This way, if you don't have time to get to the gym, you can still get your workout done at home. Then on days when you have been to the gym, you can use these strategies to improve your NEAT score. Remember, that's "non-exercise activity thermogenesis" OR How much you got up off your butt and moved all day.
Amazingly, people who tap their feet, stand instead of sit, and make an effort to move more throughout the day, can burn as much as 350 extra calories per day. That might not seem like a lot, but I guarantee you it adds up over time.
Here are the strategies for turning your whole house into the workout playground of your dreams…
Practice 5-10 minutes of yoga or stretching immediately upon rising out of bed in the morning. It will loosen you up, improve your mood, and jump start your energy level and your metabolism.
Play the post-it game. I really like this one. Start writing down the exercises you find and want to perform from your favorite magazines, web sites, or Train Like a Nomad portal. Put them on post it notes around the house in places you know you'll be spending time in during the day. Then use them as reminders to perform those moves in between all of your other chores.
Take advantage of your stairs and make extra trips. Recently I created a video about this on youtube. I was making ice candles during the polor vortex and made extra trips with the heavy buckets of water I was carrying. Brilliant idea! While everyone else was just huddling inside their igloo, I was building one.
Pull a set or two of dumbbells out of the back of the closet and leave them near one of those post-it notes. Most people stash away their exercise equipment and plan to pull it out when it's time to get to work. It almost NEVER happens. Out of site = out of mind.
Spend some time hanging around. Invest in a TRX strap and hang it in your basement or some other strategic location. My wife Laura uses this strategy at our house and it works like a charm.
OK, that's it. Go get to work. All of the greatest information and hottest fitness tips won't do you any good if you're still just sitting there. Come on. Let's go!
-John
PS Remember, the segment airs locally here in Madison at around 5:15 PM on NBC 15. If you miss it, you can tune in to the archives on the NBC 15 web site at http://www.nbc15.com/news. I generally don't have time to archive All the segments on my blog any more. I have exercise to get done.
PSS On the day I did the "Buckets and Stairs Workout" on YouTube, I also created, "How to Workout in Poloar Vortex" Thought you might be interested...
