Many of the listed risk factors are difficult – if not impossible – to reduce, so it’s understandable if you feel powerless over some of them. However, the results of this new study could arguably add inactivity to the top of that list. Since inactivity is a changeable risk factor, you can absolutely control it! Read on to learn how.
To reach the 150 minute exercise threshold over the course of a week, you need to exercise for a little less than 22 minutes daily. For someone who doesn’t exercise regularly, that might sound a bit overwhelming. But 22 minutes a day doesn’t have to mean signing up for a new gym membership, investing in a treadmill, or completely overhauling your schedule.
With the right strategies, you can achieve your daily exercise goal with very little disruption to your lifestyle, which is important to maintain your new activity level.
Here are five practical, sustainable strategies to help you be active for 22 minutes a day.
Important Note: Before starting a new exercise program, consult your physician. If you experience pain, stop immediately.
Take regular walks
You probably already walk a little bit every day. Maybe you walk to your letterbox or from your car to your office. Would it be possible for you to take a five or ten minute walk around the neighborhood before receiving the mail or entering your office?
Do you have a dog that you walk every day? Can you add time to your daily dog walks?
If you don’t already take regular walks, is there an activity you enjoy and would like to do more often that you could combine with your walk, such as talking on the phone with a friend or family member or listening to podcasts, audiobooks or music? Combining an activity that you enjoy with your walk will make it something you love to look forward to more often and make it easier to add walking to your daily schedule.
2. Practice short jumps of activity
The physical activity guidelines do not specify that you should exercise in large amounts of time every day. What’s important is that you hit the 150-minute goal every week. You can divide your activities into any time frame that is most manageable for your lifestyle.
For those with more sedentary careers, it may be easier to deal with shorter exercises. If you split 22 minutes into smaller blocks of time during the day, you’d be surprised how quickly that time flies.
What if you did six short four-minute spurts of exercise? After 24 minutes you have two minutes left. The same is true for eight bouts of just three minutes of exercise.
3. Work smarter, no longer
Return to play
Did you play sports as a child? What were your favorite outdoor activities? By returning to the playful activities of your childhood, you can bring more exercise into your life in a fun and stimulating way.
If you played basketball in school, could you start again by participating in an adult league or by finding a group that regularly plays fetch games? Maybe you started martial arts as a kid but never made it to your black belt. What is stopping you now? Is there a recreational activity that you and your partner or a close friend could do together, such as tennis, golf or cycling?
5. Track your activity
Do you really know how much moderate to vigorous activity you are getting every day? Like the people in the studies I mentioned above who mis-remembered and underreported their exercise activity, you could ignore your own activity level.
There are numerous wearable technology options to track your activity. You may even be wearing one now. Whether you use technology or an old-fashioned pen and paper, when we monitor our activity, we not only keep a more accurate record, we also take an extra step in personal accountability.
Regardless of how you track your fitness – with wearable technology or simply by keeping a diary – recording your progress will help keep you on track.