Every Little Bit Helps

By Lynn Difley

We live in a time challenged world. I don’t know about you, but it seems to me there are never enough minutes in a day. Don’t get me wrong, I love my life, but sometimes there just isn’t enough time to get it all in.

Many people feel that they just don’t have time for exercise. This may be true, if you mean training for a marathon, or becoming an Olympic athlete. However, for the rest of us mere mortals, a little bit can make a lot of difference. Forget the all or nothing mentality.

Fitness does not have to take up your whole day, there is an alternative. Short spurts of exercise, accumulated ov

er the course of the day have been shown to share similar benefits to longer duration workouts. You will reap numerous benefits by becoming more active; so if you are currently not finding time to exercise, just get started with these suggestions for quickie 10-minute workouts. If you examine your day carefully, you can always find a few minutes here and there to squeeze in 10-minute exercise sessions.

Add up three of these mini exercise sessions and you have the required minimum exercise requirement for optimal heart and cardiovascular health. Start out slowly, with a warm-up, work up to greater vigor as you feel more enthusiastic and finish off with a slowed down version of the activity.

How about first thing in the morning? Instead of having a second cup of coffee and browsing the obituary column, do what Winnie the Pooh calls “Setting Up Exercises.”

* Step and reach, punch overhead and forward, step to the side and touch, kicks and reach, lift the knees, pull forward and back, circle your hips, hula your hips, and march in place, gradually increasing the intensity for 10 minutes.
* Keep moving in as many ways as you can to get the blood circulating and the body limbered up. This is a great session to do with your favorite music.
* At noon jump on the stationary bike and pedal for 10 minutes while you plan the evening dinner menu. No stationary bike? Walk, at a challenging brisk pace until you have reached your 10-minute quota.
* In the late afternoon, how about a circuit, do 10 squats, 10 wall pushups, 10 lunges, and 10 step-ups. 10 crunches, 10 knee lifts, repeat until 10 minutes are past.

There you have it, 30 minutes of exercise, done without major disruption of your schedule. Don’t you feel better already?