Physical activity has many benefits. It can lower your disease risk, boost your brain health and make you stronger.
But the recommended amount of physical activity—150 minutes per week—can feel like a lot!
One thing that can help? Instead of carving out time just for exercise, think about how to move more all day long. Here are some ways to move more, no matter what you’re doing.
- Brushing teeth: Practice balance poses. Pop one foot onto your opposite ankle (or higher up your leg, avoiding your knee) to strike a tree pose. You can use your nondominant hand to hold onto the sink if you need some help balancing.
- Working at the computer: Get up at least once an hour to get yourself a glass of water. While you’re at it, walk around the house or office to stretch your legs.
- Talking on the phone: Take a walk while catching up with a friend or while on a meeting that doesn’t need screens.
- Running errands: Park at the farthest end of the lot to get in some extra steps.
- Standing in line: Even while it looks like you’re standing still, you can do tiny movements that make you stronger. Contract your abs, do pelvic floor exercises and squeeze your glutes.
- Cooking dinner: Put on some tunes while you’re cooking dinner and dance around the kitchen—especially during the hands-off parts of the cooking process, like waiting for sauce to simmer or vegetables to roast.
- Cleaning the house: Good news! Most household tasks move your body. Loading the dishwasher, bringing out the trash, vacuuming and doing laundry are all great ways to be active.
- Watching TV: Get your heart beating faster with jumping jacks, and strengthen your body with standing lunges, push-ups, triceps dips and planks. Or help your body relax with stretches you can do lying down, like a knee-to-chest stretch.