Incorporating Exercise for a Busy Person

dachiri

Hey all, I'd like to add a little more exercise to my day, but I'm plum out of time! Right now, I walk at least 5 miles a day (courtesy of the dog and living in the city) and, now that spring has sprung, bike at least 1.5 miles on top of that. This involves walking the dog, walking to and from the subway, taking a walk at lunch, and biking from work to a subway station halfway home (the route to get the rest of the way home is too circuitous to be possible). On top of that, I play softball 2 days a week. I don't have a car, so any errands that don't absolutely *require* one (I use a car to do major grocery shopping/errands about once every 2-3 weeks) are done on foot/public transit/bike.

Any thoughts on random places I could add in a little movement in my day? Do squats in my cube lol?

JJordon

The various types of squats. Slanted wall pushups, but c'mon you can do real pushups on the floor (at least knee pushups!). Who's gonna look at you twice? Chair dips. Floor dips. Crunches.

dachiri

Actually I can't do real pushups, or even knee ones...or chair dips or anything like that. I have a partially torn rotator cuff... Which is why I'm heavy on the "standing up" type exercises. I can handle small amounts of weight on my arm, but not my body weight.

MikeLoyd

Maybe you could take the time you already using for exercise and increase the intensity. Why not jog part of the 5 miles?

ElliInJapan

Exercise at home in the evening?
Or joining a gym?

I understand that you're busy, but the truth is you've got to find time. I was like that in the beginning (and still am sometimes). I thought it was impossible to join a gym, there was no way to find time for that. Now I treat it as one of my appointments and arrange everything else around it. In the beginning it was tough and I only managed to go once or twice a week. Now I regularly go 3 times a week and I feel very proud that I managed to fit it in my schedule. Just yesterday I had a conference call at 7pm, after which I would go to the gym, but I was then asked to shift it by one hour. I knew I wouldn't make it for the gym afterwards, so I arranged for the call to take place at 10pm instead. This is just an example but I feel very proud for the change in my mentality - in the past I would have just ditched the gym.

Anyway, the bottom line is: make time for exercise. It's not easy, but treat it as something that needs to be done.

Vansy

There are apps that you can download for "exercising at work" -- you can set it to give you little exercises to do throughout the workday and you can set it to give you little reminders to do the workouts too.

matt2442

take out the 5 miles of walking and start running

dachiri

There are apps that you can download for "exercising at work" -- you can set it to give you little exercises to do throughout the workday and you can set it to give you little reminders to do the workouts too.

Ah, thanks. this is the kind of thing I was looking for. The nearest gym is so far away, that by the time I got there and back (I couldn't even go until between 9:30 and 10 PM), it would be midnight or nearly so and I'd still need to shower, pack lunch, walk the dog again, pack up all my stuff for work...just thinking about it makes me shudder. I have literally 2 hours of free time to myself, about 4 days a week (on softball days I have no free time, and I typically don't sit down on Sundays except to eat). I'm not keen on giving one up to the gym and the other to the subway there and back. There is a level where I'd rather be a little fat and have a few minutes of peace than put even more on my plate. But best to try to do little things here and there.