9 Easy Ways To Get Fit If You’re Feeling Lazy
A perfect start to the new year
Many of us have likely wondered how we can get fit fast. But when it comes to actually having to work out, it’s all too easy to find excuses not to (especially during the holidays and new year).
When you’re just starting off your pursuit to being fit, your stamina doesn’t tend to be tip top; it takes some getting there. So here’s how to get yourself fitter, without it feeling like the most painful thing in the world.
9 lazy(ish) ways to get fit
1. Stick To 10s
Try to do just 10 push-ups and 10 sit-ups every day, even if they aren’t consecutive. Because something is better than nothing, and after a while, when you feel yourself finding the sets of 10 easy, you can up it at your own pace.
2. Stand Up At Least Every Hour
We’ve all read the reports about how sitting all day is bad for you, being hunched over a keyboard and not even getting out for lunch because you’re too busy.
Make a conscious effort to get up at least once an hour – go to the toilet, make a round of tea, or even just go and say hello to a colleague. Better still, buy an Apple Watch and it’ll buzz at you every time it hits 10 to the hour if it hasn’t detected you standing up at all.
3. Walk For At Least 20 Minutes A Day
Whether it’s the bleak mid-winter or not, even walking just 20 minutes a day will be an improvement for your health. It’s easy to fit it into your daily schedule, and won’t have you gasping for breath.
Jump on the bandwagon started by charity Living Streets, which is encouraging people to #Try20 by walking for just 20 minutes per day for a month to see how much difference it makes to both health and happiness.
4. Work Out In The Comfort Of Your Own Home
You don’t even need to leave your house, or even the sofa, to get a solid workout in. There are many accessible exercises and home workouts you can do from your living room that won’t require you to make the commute to the gym. Do some tricep dips and some lunges, or work those abs – all from the comfort of your own home.
5. Use Tabata
If you only have five minutes, download the Tabata timer app for a super speedy work out. Guiding you for 20 seconds on and 10 seconds off makes for a great high-intensity workout that has both fitness and weight-loss benefits.
Run for 20 seconds and then walk for 10, or skip for 20 and lay down for 10. You can do burpees, mountain climbers or even the plank, Tabata training will raise your metabolism and heart rate immediately and you should start seeing the benefits in no time.
6. Switch Off
It’s not all about exercise – our daily lives have a real impact on our health and wellbeing. Getting enough sleep is crucial to being fit, and the many devices you own which distract you on the daily aren’t helping.
So, power down all the technology you’ve got at least an hour before going to sleep, and you should find you start to have a better rest.
7. Don’t Worry About How Long Your Workout Lasts
The quality of your workout doesn’t depend on how long it is. Any exercise is great and the most important thing when first starting out is to just get moving in the first place.
Don’t try and climb a mountain before you can even walk. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t do a full hour, or if you couldn’t run for as long as you wanted. The fact is, you’re doing something, and that’s what that matters.
8. Run For Just One Song
Instead of being too ambitious and then feeling awful when it doesn’t all come together, tell yourself to run just the length of one song. Make it a good one and you won’t even notice when the 3.5 minutes are over.
9. Work Out During The Adverts
Watching TV is pretty much everyone’s lazy pleasure. So why not combine this with exercise, and time your mini-workouts to be just as long as the adverts? If you do a five minute circuit of lunges, burpees, jogging, skipping and squats during the ads, then you can reward yourself by lounging on the sofa.
From Harper’s Bazaar UK