How to turn your daily incidental exercise into a workout
By Mark Glanville, Co-Founder Movement HQ.
So a member of the marketing team thought it’d be a good idea for me to elaborate on a presentation I did for a group of accountants on ‘Deliberate versus Incidental Exercise’ so here we are.
I had spoken about this as it’s a very relevant topic for anyone wanting to age well and kick the national life expectancy in the arse.
For those of you that are unaware, the Australian life expectancy for males is 81.2 and women it’s 85.3, I bet you’re doing the math right now aren’t you?
So let’s get to the topic and answer the question that is probably on your mind right now, what is Incidental Exercise and how is it different to Deliberate?
Deliberate Exercise
is exactly how it sounds, it’s going to the gym, doing star-jumps or burpees, it’s playing sport or going for a run, it’s planned movement, it’s deliberate!
Chances are if you’re reading this deliberate exercise is something that you already partake in and that’s bloody great, we all should because as you know the benefits are endless.
Incidental exercise
So this brings us to ‘Incidental’ exercise. A definition of Incidental in the Oxford Dictionary is ‘happening as a result of an activity’, basically meaning it’s a by-product or a result of you doing something that led you to exercising in some manner.
“Like what?” You ask…….. like gardening, which entails a lot of labour, a lot of different movements like squatting, kneeling/lunging, lifting, digging, carrying and rotating. This is where we get our Incidental Exercise.
Turning incidental into deliberate exercise
By trying to move or exercise as often as you can, then there are ways that you can actually increase the frequency of your Incidental Exercise.
The first thing that comes to mind is avoiding the escalator. If you’re at the shops or airport don’t take the bloody the escalator – take the stairs, yes it’s harder but that’s the point.
By simply thinking this way you are on your way to increasing your daily activity and quite possibly helping maintain better cardiovascular health and longevity and even adding more sunshine to your day and getting stronger and fitter.
“What other ways can I add to my Incidental Exercise?”
It’s pretty easy – park further away from the shop entry or work, leave the office and walk to a park to eat your lunch, walk to the local shop for milk and bread instead of driving, if you don’t do your own gardening or mow your own lawns then you should, take phone calls on the move instead of sitting down, when you hear your favourite song get the hell up and boogy like no one’s watching (I do it to almost every song at the gym, just ask our members! Haha).
Walk the dog, play with the kids outside for 5 or 10 minutes.
It could also be how you move when staying still – holding a squat position instead of sitting on a chair – awesome for your hip flexibility and a great quad stretch.
I could go on and on but it’s your turn to think about ways that you can add some Incidental Exercise to your daily routine and reap the benefits!
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