How To Do Mini Workouts Throughout the Day For Fitness

Sometimes the thought of getting a full-length exercise session at the end of a busy workday is daunting. People may feel too tired after work to even think of exercising, or they may have too much to do in the home looking after other people or doing household chores. It may be easier and less intimidating to do short exercise sessions throughout the day, which will be very beneficial for health and may even be as good as or, some researchers say, even better than one continuous exercise session, depending on the exercises that are done and their frequency and duration.

1. Climb any stairs that you encounter. Once up the stairs is good, but if you have time, go down and climb the stairs again. Stair climbing is great aerobic exercise and is also wonderful exercise for the thigh muscles.
2. Take brisk mini-walks throughout the day. For example, walk to the next bus stop instead of the nearest one when you have to catch a bus. Take a mini-walk at lunch time or before heading home after work. Park your car at the edge of a shopping mall parking lot so that you have to walk to the mall entrance. Walk one or more circuits around the shopping mall before you enter a store.
3. Take a walk on the way home from work. It’s often psychologically easier to exercise before you arrive home than to get yourself physically and mentally ready for exercise once you’ve entered your home at the end of the workday. Park the car on the way home so that you can take a walk before you continue on your drive. Get off the bus one or more stops before your usual bus stop and walk the rest of the way home.
4. During your walks, walk up inclines, march with knee lifts or do power walking intervals with bent arms (read instructions on the Internet to ensure that you use proper form) for added aerobic and strength-building benefit. Hopping, jumping and running intervals are also good ways to increase aerobic intensity, but make sure that you are wearing supportive and cushioning shoes when you do these higher-impact forms of exercise, and avoid very hard surfaces.
5. Kick, hit or throw a ball around for a short time. Have fun!
6. During the week and on the weekends, walk or cycle to the store or to your appointments instead of driving or using public transport. Make exercise a part of your lifestyle.

1. Spend some time standing instead of sitting. Standing burns more calories than sitting. When you do sit, don’t slouch, but do make sure that your back is properly supported.
2. Do a few biceps curls or other upper body exercises with natural weights that you encounter during the day, like full food and drink containers or small items of office equipment.
3. Do a few wall push ups during the day to exercise your upper body.
4. Take a resistance band or resistance tube to work with you or keep one at your work place and use it to exercise your muscles. Stretchy resistance bands, also called exercise bands, come in different tensions to suit your muscle strength and are easy to carry from place to place. Resistance tubes are similar but have handles. Exercise bands or tubes can be taken on walks for resistance training intervals.
5. Do lunges and squats or other standing or sitting lower body exercises when you have a spare moment (and when you also have privacy if you prefer).
6. Do standing crunches to exercise the abdominal area.

7. Try exercising during the advertisements when you’re watching television. You could keep weights or exercise bands beside your seat so that they will be quickly available when you need them. Start with light weights if you’re new to weight lifting.

1. At home, when you’re listening to music, get up and move or dance to the music until the song or section is finished. Just make sure that you’re wearing suitable shoes. (You may enjoy moving to music so much that you’ll want to dance to the next song too!)
2. Periodically do gentle stretching exercises and standing or sitting yoga exercises. (Don’t do big stretches if your muscles aren’t warmed up.)
3. Remember to be careful with all exercises, especially if you haven’t exercised for a long time or haven’t done a particular type of exercise before or for a long time. Start gently and gradually increase the intensity over time as you become fitter.
4. Make sure that you use the correct form when lifting weights or doing strength-building exercises. Even though you’re doing a mini workout, don’t sacrifice good body form for speed. It’s better to do one exercise correctly for a short time than to cram many exercises done incorrectly into the same time period. A little research before you incorporate an exercise into a mini workout will help prevent any injuries and enable you to keep increasing your fitness level.

Aim to get at least thirty minutes of exercise per day (in total) from your mini workouts. Do a variety of exercises. Take rest days if you need them, especially if you are new to exercising.