I used to play racquetball a few times a week with a friend of mine (Hi, Jeff.) Because of schedules, club hours and a little laziness, we eventually stopped playing.
Not too long ago, I was visiting Jeff and the topic of exercise came up. I told him that I had started practicing Yoga. I then jumped off his couch, layed myself down on his floor in the corpse pose and said "Look, Jeff! This is exercise! Isn't it great? I'm not even sweating!" He looked at me lying on his floor and shook his head and chuckled.
But you know what? I was right. Before I jumped up and then layed down, we were just sitting there. The act of getting up and then lying down and then (eventually) getting up again was exercise.
There are days when I do very, very little exercise. But I've learned that ANY time I exercise, I'm doing more for my body than when I'm not exercising.
I like to fit some exercise freebies into my day. These are not new ideas, but they are good ones:
1. Instead of picking up the phone to call someone down the hall at the office, I get up and walk there.
2. Instead of the elevator, I take the stairs. I actually, started by taking the stairs down and the elevator up, but that's better than taking the elevator both ways. Now I take it both ways almost all the time.
3. I park near the back of the parking lot and fit in a few extra seconds of walking to the store.
4. I spend a lot of time with my young daughter. That's good for the soul and also burns more calories than sitting on the couch.
5. I do a half-commute on my bike to work. I live 35 miles from the office, so a 70 mile daily commute is out of the question. However, about once a week (and only in decent weather), I drive my truck to work with the bike in the back. Then I leave my truck at work and ride home (35 miles)at the end of the day. The next day, I ride my bike into work (35 miles) and haul my bike home that evening. So, although a 70 mile commute is not feasible, I do this half-commute to squeeze in a great deal of extra exercise each week. (Not to mention save on the ever increasing price of GAS!)
So, remember: Any exercise is better than no exercise.
