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Well, I don't know that much about exercise. I'm not a certified personal trainer, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a physical therapist, and I'm certainly not a professional athlete. I am, however, an overweight woman trying to get in shape, so hopefully I'll be able to offer a bit of insight into exercise. Here are a few tips from what I've learned so far:
- Make yourself actually do it. If you do it regularly enough, you'll actually look forward to working out and miss it when you don't. I never would've guessed that.. but I swear it's true. I actually feel better and more energized after I've worked out.
- Find something fun to do while you exercise. Get a book or an audiobook that you won't read except when you're exercising. If it's a good enough book, you'll want to exercise just to read it. You can do the same with a movie or TV show.
- Don't hurt yourself. If lifting ten pounds makes you sore the next day, only lift five pounds until you're used to it. If walking or running hurts your knees, ride a recumbent bike. Don't exercise so hard that you hurt, otherwise you won't want to do it again.
If you honestly don't have time for an hour workout, try and incorporate exercise into your daily life. Here are a few small things you can do that will eventually add up:
- Store your canned goods, chips, cookies, etc. (things that would normally go in a kitchen cupboard) in a dry area in your basement, or upstairs if you don't have a basement. That way when you want to get a can of soup for dinner, you'll have to go up and down a flight of stairs. It could even prevent you from snacking, if you're lazy enough.
- Park a little farther away next time you go grocery shopping or to the mall. A bit of walking here and there may not make you lose 10 pounds, but it does count for something.
- If you're only going up one or two stories at work, skip the elevator and take the stairs. One flight shouldn't make you that winded, but it's still exercise.
- If you use a water cooler at work, bring a small cup rather than a big one. That way you'll have to get up more often to fill it.
- If you've got to clean your whole house, do it all at once rather than in bits and stages. Not only will you have a bigger chunk of free time afterwards (in which to work out, maybe?), but if you clean fast enough, it might be considered aerobic.
Obviously, one of the tried and true ways to exercise is to join a gym and workout at dedicated times, preferably with a personal trainer. However, that isn't possible for all of us, whether it's a money, time, or preference issue. Here are some resources for those of you who have to exercise on your own, from home:
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