Top Secret Undercover Workout (Fitting more exercise into your day)

0

The agent enters her small, windowless office. A manilla folder awaits, placed neatly on her desk. CLASSIFIED the label reads. Instinctively, she quickly looks left, then right, to see if anyone is watching. She moves her breakfast of Greek yogurt and a banana off to the side, takes a sip out of her ever-present water bottle, then a big breath and opens the folder.

It contains a letter.

Special Agent, if you are reading this, do not ask questions. Just do what is asked of you.  We have been watching you. Yes, watching you. We know of your frenzied life, the chaotic mornings rushing to get kids off to school and your ass to work on time.  We know of the late nights at the office as you try to make a name for yourself. We know of the endless ways you put others before yourself (and that you often forget YOU are a SPECIAL agent). And we know you think you have no time for exercise. You are to erase the ‘all or nothing mentality’ you have been brainwashed by the enemy to adopt. You think you have no time to get some activity into your day as a busy agent/mother/wife/executive/leader/friend/daughter of aging parents (you do wear so so many hats, Special Agent!). The contents of this file will make you feel less grumpy, less guilty, less tired. You will find in this folder a list of ways to keep moving during your busy days, no matter where you are. Some of the methods are so discreet you would think they were developed by our best spies. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is an undercover workout that can be repeated multiple times during the day.

She took another sip of her water bottle and grabbed hold of the list:

STEALTH FITNESS

  • Walk ‘n read. If you have time to scroll through Facebook and/or Twitter on your phone, set the phone’s timer for at least 15 minutes and walk while you read. This is not hard to do, even for the most uncoordinated among us, and as along as you’re not around any sharp edgy furniture, you can pace back and forth while catching up on what you friends had for dinner and everyone’s beautiful vacation pictures.
  • Wall sits. Whether you work outside the home or in, my bet is you have access to at least one wall. Perhaps even four. Again, make use of the timer on your phone. Challenge yourself. If you can only go 20 seconds one time, try 25 the next. For an example of a wall sit, hit up YouTube.
  • Hurry it up! This is an easy one. Rush. Every time you are walking – at work down a hallway to a coworker’s office for example – act as if you are trying to catch a bus you know will be pulling away very very soon. This same approach can be adopted anywhere, whether it’s a grocery store aisle or heck, even a church aisle!
  • Wall pushups. Your fancy power suit may not be conducive to you hitting the floor for push ups – neither the girl nor the boy variety, but you CAN do wall pushups in any ol’ thing you’ve got on. Aim to do three sets of 15 and you can space that throughout the day.
  • Bag the cell phone calls in the car. Save them for home or work, where you can walk and pace around at the same time. Why waste a conversation on your ass when you can be chit chatting and catching up with someone moving around on your own two feet?
  • Calf raises. Unless you live in New Jersey, where it is simply not allowed, get out of the car and pump your own gas. While you’re waiting for the tank to fill up, get those calf raises going!
  • Squeeze those cheeks. Yes, we’re talking butt cheeks. In traffic? At a red light? Try contracting your glutes till the light changes, or till you get to the next exit or bus stop on your commute. Trust me, no one is looking at you. They are scrolling through Facebook on their phones.
  • Become less efficient, grasshopper. Huh? This sounds counter productive to our work ethic. Becoming less efficient means using the copier on another floor, bringing groceries into the house one bag at a time, hauling up the laundry from the basement in several batches, leaving something behind on purpose in your car so you have to go back out to the parking lot to fetch it.

The Special Agent (oh yes she is!) accepted the mission. How about you? How can you add more activity into a ‘regular’ day (if there is such a thing!)?

What would be your mission? Hit us up in the comments. We love hearing from you!

(Visited 16 times, 1 visits today)