In your busy schedule, it can be hard to find time to breathe, much less make it to the gym. If moving your body is a huge component of staying healthy, how can you find ways to stay active? The good news is that you don’t need much equipment or a gym membership to get moving. Quick, efficient workouts at home can provide immense physical and mental benefits, including improved heart and lung health, stronger muscles and higher calorie burning.
Depending on your goals and where you are in your fitness journey, consider three ways to incorporate healthy activity into your day.
It may seem too simple, but walking is one of the easiest ways to exercise. Walking daily can help you lose weight, improve your mood, prevent or manage health conditions like high blood pressure and heart disease, reduce stress and much more.1 All you need is a pair of shoes and a little time to get started. Thirty minutes a day is a good goal, but you don’t have to do it all at once. Try taking five-to-10-minute walking breaks for every hour of work time.
If 30 minutes a day feels like too much, start with five-minute walks and slowly build up from there. Once you’ve reached 30 minutes a day and feel confident in your ability to do more, try changing your pace. Warm up with a slow walk for the first 10 minutes, go at a faster pace for the next 10 minutes and then use the final 10 minutes to cool down at a slower pace. Taking a few minutes to stretch afterward can help your muscles stay flexible and healthy.
When the weather is unpleasant or unsafe, try walking at a local shopping center, doing laps inside your church or taking the stairs instead of an elevator. Make the most of your walks by listening to a podcast or music, meditating on Scripture or asking a friend or co-worker to join you.
It’s common to think about strength training in terms of exercises like leg presses and bicep curls. These types of exercises are defined as “non-functional”, which doesn’t mean they aren’t useful — it just means those specific movements don’t directly correlate to most motions commonly used in daily life. Non-functional exercises focus on one or two muscles and can require access to gym equipment, which can be a hassle to get to when you’re busy.
On the other hand, functional exercises use whole groups of muscles to mimic everyday motions like ascending stairs or getting out of a chair. Functional movements can help you improve your balance and coordination and help protect you from everyday injuries.2 As a bonus, these exercises don’t require lengthy warmups, specialized equipment or much time to perform. Because they use multiple muscle groups, they may even boost how many calories you burn, making them useful for weight management goals as well.
Here is a short list of functional movements to help you get started. You can find free online videos with detailed descriptions and instructions for each exercise:
Try doing two or three of these functional movements for five to ten minutes a few times a day. Or, you could do five or six of these for about twenty minutes at the end of your day. It’s a great way to shake off stiffness from sitting throughout the day.
HIIT might be a good fit if you’re looking for a more intense, time-efficient workout. Many people enjoy this quick-moving and varying style of exercise more than a longer-form, lower-intensity exercise such as running or swimming. These workouts consist of a series of short intervals alternating between different high-intensity exercises and rest periods. For example, this could include jumping jacks for 30 seconds at a brisk pace, walking slowly for 15 seconds and doing weighted step-ups for 30 seconds.
HIIT workout options can be found online in numerous varieties and difficulty ranges to match your fitness level. Because these are intense workouts, it’s crucial to perform them thoughtfully:
The intensity that makes HIIT workouts so effective makes them easy to fit into your schedule. Even ten minutes of alternating high-intensity movement with rest periods (twenty minutes total with warmup and cooldown) can create valuable results, like improved heart health, endurance and brain function, as well as reducing your risk for some chronic diseases.3
Whether you’re just getting started with fitness activities or want to shake up an existing exercise routine, there are multiple ways to achieve your health goals without taking up too much time. Making exercise a regular habit will help you be healthier and feel better, giving you more endurance and strength for your ministry.
At GuideStone®, our vision is that every servant of Christ finishes well. That’s why we provide health plans and other helpful resources to help optimize your health and wellness. For more information, contact us at Insurance@GuideStone.org or 1-844-INS-GUIDE (1-844-467-4843), Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. CT.
GuideStone welcomes the opportunity to share this general information. However, this article is not intended to be relied upon as medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
1MayoClinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/walking/art-20046261
2WebMD.com/fitness-exercise/how-to-exercise-with-functional-training
3NCBI.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8294064
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