I genuinely enjoy fitness. Not necessarily all the heavy-weight-lifting and the running until I have blisters on my feet and can’t breathe, but I like the endorphins I get from going for a walk, dancing around my living room, stretching at night, or any other light fitness activity.
Often when I am thinking about working out, though, the thoughts that come to mind are, “Must go to gym. Must get sweaty. Must have all workout equipment in a bag and wear the right clothes and fill up my water bottle and wear tennis shoes that can breathe well and…”
And while that’s all great, when that long list enters my mind, I lose a lot of the motivation to get up and get active.
So today we are going to look at ways to incorporate fitness into your daily routine. This will be small steps you can take to help keep yourself active throughout the day without the burden of a ton of effort going into it.
After all, we have a lot of extra time on our hands to work on improving our fitness, so we might as well try to build some healthy habits.

-Brushing your teeth

We all SHOULD BE brushing our teeth at least twice a day for two minutes each time. What do we do during this time? Just stare at ourselves in the mirror? NO MORE! From now on, we will take those 4+ minutes each day and make them work for us. And you might be thinking, “How can I work out while I’m brushing my teeth?” Here’s a couple of ideas:

• Wall-sit the entire two minutes and feel the burn in your legs
• Do 60 squats – one every two seconds of your tooth-brushing time
• High-knees, maybe even a high knee hold to engage your core
• Hold the yoga pose “Tree” for a minute per leg.

Getting steps in

If you have a fitness watch, it likely reminds you every hour or so to get active and take a certain number of steps. For Fitbits I know the number is 250 an hour. If you get in only those 250 steps each hour for 10 hours of your day, that’s 2,500 steps that you wouldn’t have otherwise gotten in! Once getting 250 an hour seems easy, bump yourself up in increments of 50 steps per hour, in addition to other steps you get throughout the day. Eventually, work up to 1,000 steps per hour or at least 10,000 a day!

TV Workouts

We’ve all been binging a bit of TV during this time, so why not make that time work for your fitness? You can choose to walk in place while you watch a program, do crunches during commercial breaks, stretch throughout the duration of the show, or even look up a workout for your favorite TV show on Pinterest. There are tons there, and if you can’t find your faves, make your own! Jumping jacks during the theme song, squats when a character does a certain thing, etc.

-Planking

Planking is a full-body workout that can help you to see extreme benefits in just a minute or so per day. try to plank three times throughout the day – morning, afternoon, and evening – starting with 20 or so seconds and working up to holding it for a minute or more. Doing just three minutes a day of this can tone your abs, legs, and arms – just be sure that you have good form in this pose!

-Park far

Once we can start going places, park in the farthest spot in the lot from the front door and make the trek instead of spending time driving in circles to get a spot up front. The extra minute or two won’t hurt you if you’re pressed for time, and the walk in the sunshine is beneficial for a number of reasons.

-Build a workout habit

50 Squats before a shower. Lunges as you go down the hall. Calf raises when you’re standing talking to someone. Leg lifts in bed at night. Whatever you can make a routine, add it to your daily schedule and make your day work for you!

Keeping your health in mind is a huge boost to you in so many ways. It can boost your immune system and metabolism, which will help keep you healthy, it can boost your mood and fight off depression and anxiety, and it can help you to be physically stronger and more capable of certain activities.

Do you have any tips for adding fitness to everyday life? I would love to hear some of the ways you stay healthy without making a big commitment of going to the gym. These small actions can help you to increase your daily steps, get tone in your muscles, and feel more full of energy throughout the day. Let us know in the comments what daily activities you do that help you to stay healthy!