If your New Year’s resolution is to be more active, and you don’t want to go to the gym every day—don’t worry, you don’t have to! It’s much easier to do a variety of activities that you enjoy for those days that you don’t want to hit the gym. Here are a few things we like to do to stay fit and keep moving when we don’t want to go to the gym:
- Choose 6-10 of your favorite songs and make a playlist. Play the playlist all the way through, dancing the whole time. We enjoy this most when we use upbeat, fast-paced music. Tammy’s daughters typically join her so it’s great to get the kids moving too!
- Create a historic walking tour in your town or city. There are often so many interesting, historic sites in your home town that you don’t know about or never take the time to see. We know we are this way about New York City! Find about 5 interesting sites that are all in the same general area. Research the importance of each site and bring the information with you so you can see the site and read about it at the same time. We find this so much fun!
- Think of easy strength training exercises that you can do at home. We love to do push ups, tricep dips, squats, lunges, sit ups, and jumping jacks at home when we don’t have time to hit the gym.
- If you live somewhere where you’re able to walk safely, count the number of blocks you’re currently walking. Then try to increase that number. For example, if you’re currently walking 10 blocks a day, aim to walk 15 or 20 a day. Once you can comfortably walk 15 or 20, try to increase again to 25 or 30! The small, spread out increase in the amount you’re walking will make the increased exercise manageable!
Remember, when it comes to exercise, some is better than none! (This is actually one of the things that’s hardest for our clients to accept—they think if they can’t do a full workout it’s not worth it—SO wrong.)Also, breaking up the recommended 30 minutes per day into several shorter sessions gives the same benefits!
How do you get your exercise when you can’t or don’t want to go to the gym?