From Prevention magazine:
25 Easy Ways To Fit In 10 Minutes Of Exercise
Squeeze these quick calorie-burning exercises
into your busy schedule to stay motivated
Stolen Moments Add Up
Experts recommend working out 45 minutes to an hour a day (30
minutes for beginners) for weight loss and fitness. But if you're like most
women, you don't always have a block of 30 to 60 minutes a day to devote
exclusively to doing your workouts.
Lest you think that short bursts of activity have a negligible
effect on your fitness program, think again. One study found that women who
split their exercise into 10-minute increments were more likely to exercise
consistently, and lost more weight after five months, than women who exercised
for 20 to 40 minutes at a time.
Fitness Tips
Tips For Success
In a landmark study conducted at the University of Virginia,
exercise physiologist Glenn Gaesser, PhD, asked men and women to complete 15
10-minute exercise routines a week. After just 21 days, the
volunteers' aerobic fitness was equal to that of people 10 to 15 years younger.
Their strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility were equal to those of
people up to 20 years their junior. "It would be useful for people to get
out of the all-or-nothing mind-set that unless they exercise for 30 minutes,
they're wasting their time," says Gaesser.
Breaking exercise into small chunks on your overscheduled days can
also keep your confidence up, since skipping it altogether can make you feel
tired, guilty, or depressed. Keep in mind, though, that short bursts of
exercise are meant to supplement, not replace, your regular fitness routine.
Here are simple, practical ways to work exercise into your day
even when you're short on time:
Around the House
1. When you go outside to
pick up your morning newspaper, take a brisk 5-minute power walk up the street
in one direction and back in the other.
2. If you're housebound
caring for a sick child or grandchild, hop on an exercise bike or do a
treadmill workout while your ailing loved one naps.
3. Try 5 to 10 minutes of
jumping jacks. (A 150-pound woman can burn 90 calories in one 10-minute
session.)
4. Cooking dinner? Do
standing push-ups while you wait for a pot to boil. Stand about an arm's length
from the kitchen counter, and push your arms against the counter. Push in and
out to get toned arms and shoulders.
5. After dinner, go
outside and play tag or shoot baskets with your kids and their friends.
6. Just before bed or
while you're giving yourself a facial at night, do a few repetitions of some
dumbbell exercises, suggests exercise instructor Sheila Cluff, owner and
founder of The Oaks at Ojai and The Palms, in Palm Springs, CA, who keeps a set
of free weights on a shelf in front of her bathroom sink.
Adapted from
Fit Not Fat at 40.
While Waiting
7. Walk around the block
several times while you wait for your child to take a music lesson. As your
fitness level improves, add 1-minute bursts of jogging to your walks.
8. Walk around medical
buildings if you have a long wait for a doctor's appointment. "I always
ask the receptionist to give me an idea of how long I have left to wait,"
Cluff says. "Most are usually very willing to tell you."
9. While your son or
daughter plays a soccer game, walk around the field.
10. Turn a trip to a park
with your child into a mini-workout for you. Throw a ball back and forth and
run for fly balls.
At Work
11. Walk to work if you
can. "I walked to work for months, 1 1/2 miles each way," says Mary
Dallman, PhD, professor of physiology at the University of California, San Francisco,
and she really saw results.
12. If you dine out on your
lunch hour, walk to a restaurant on a route that takes you a little bit out of
your way.
13. If you have a meeting
in another building, leave 5 or 10 minutes early (or take some time afterward),
and do some extra walking.
14. On breaks, spend 5 to
10 minutes climbing stairs.
15. If you're pressed for
time and must wait for an elevator, strengthen your core with ab exercises.
Stand with your feet parallel and your knees relaxed. Contract the muscles
around your belly button. Then elevate your upper torso, and release. Finally,
contract your buttocks for a few seconds.
16. Use a ringing phone as
an excuse to stretch your back. Stand with your feet astride. Imagine that you
are encased in a plaster cast from your waist to your head. Gently tilt the
lower part of your pelvis backward. Contract your abdominal muscles. Then
gently tilt your pelvis forward.
When You're Watching TV
17. Put away your remote
and change channels the old-fashioned way—by getting up and walking to the
television set.
18. Dance as if you were 16
again. Put on a music program or MTV. Then dance like crazy, advises Peg
Jordan, PhD, RN, author of The Fitness Instinct. "Free yourself to
think of movement as something that you have a right to do," she says.
19. During commercials, jog
in place. A 150-pound woman can burn up to 45 calories in 5 minutes. Or try our
Couch-Potato Workout.
20. Do leg exercises and
lifts with small weights while you watch The Weather Channel, cooking
shows, movies, or the news.
While Traveling
21. Pack your sneakers and
a fitness DVD. Call ahead to make sure your room has a DVD player. If it
doesn't, ask to rent one from the hotel.
22. If you're traveling by
car, stop twice a day for short, brisk walks and some stretching.
23. During layovers at
airports, avoid the mechanized "moving carpets" that transport
travelers from concourse to concourse. "If you're in between flights, walk
around the concourse as much as you can," suggests Cluff.
24. Book a hotel room
between the fifth and eighth floors, then ignore the elevator. Better yet, take
two stairs at a time. (Check with the hotel first because for security reasons
some hotels do not allow guests to use stairs except for emergencies.)
25. Do calf stretches while
riding in elevators.
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