What if I was to tell you that you do not have to embark on a giant workout to feel like you’ve ‘exercised’ for the day?
What if I was to tell you that you do not need to belong to a gym or enrol in a bootcamp to be ‘fit’?
What if I was to tell you that our bodies are our own personal gym, and any movement we do can be likened to our own personalised bootcamp?
Let’s change the way we think. Because we have access to a remarkable machine-like body that has over 640 muscles, multiple joints, ligaments and tendons, two arms and two legs – all of which whose sole purpose is to help us move. If we were meant to be dormant, docile, device-bound objects, we would have been brought into this world as sausages. Alas, we are humans equipped with a capacity to achieve an infinite and life-giving amount of movement, yet many of us are not moving anywhere near enough to successfully download all the benefits that come from an active life.
We need to realise that every little bit of movement counts. And every little step counts.
Every. Little. Step.
Earlier this week I had one of those days where I seemed to have appointment after appointment, meeting after meeting, and I hadn’t officially booked any time for myself. I was beginning to get antsy and frustrated that I hadn’t planned some me time, or more particularly, some exercise time.
So I fitted little bits in where I could…
While a client was running late I managed to squeeze in a fifteen minute body weight workout focussing on upper body and abdominals (press-ups and crunches, that kind of thing). There was no real structure as such, I just created it as I went along.
I also managed to sneak in about 50 (who’s counting…?) squats and 50 lunges while I waited for my dinner leftovers to heat up for lunch. That certainly let me legs know they needed to keep strong and physically able.
But wait there’s more! And then, after I got home from the kids swimming lessons I decided to postpone the kids’ showers and dinner preparation (in the hope that I wouldn’t be confronted with ‘hanger’ from the little people in doing so) and did 10 minutes of shuttle runs on the lawn dodging doggy doo and the odd prickle plant – and even managed to have the kids chase and climb on me in the process, and therefore adding to the intensity and adventure of my original intentions.
So with no planning, with no preparation, and with no equipment – other than my own body – I managed to fit in three patches of effective movement. My body felt more free, my mind felt more relaxed, and my soul was content.
Was it a ‘proper’ workout… No. Was it effective movement… Yes. And that’s all that matters!
To me, it’s never a matter of when; time is not an excuse to not move. It’s a matter of how. I challenge you to think creatively about what movement you can fit in to your days.
- Corinne Austin
- Movement Motivator
- fitfixnz.co.nz
