ShareWe spend most of the day sitting on our backsides… Plus we’re short on time to workout. I really notice this when I’m traveling and attend business meetings.
This combination is simply bad news for your waistline.
I like to think any chance you get to workout is better than nothing. Here’s 15 unexpected ways to sneak in a workout during your day:
At the Office
1. Elevator is Out of Action
Consider the elevator at the office is permanently out so you have to walk the stairs everyday. You can even put an “Out of Order” sign on it and get everyone taking the stairs.
2. Frequent Bathroom Breaks
Walk to the bathroom furthest away – and drink tons of water so you need to go every hour. I’m sure your boss won’t mind…
3. One minute Bodyweight Moves
When you get back from the bathroom every hour, do 30s squats and 30s push ups before sitting down again. Who cares if your colleagues think you’ve lost your mind?!
4. Walk and Talk
Instead of taking conference calls and lazing back, get up off your butt. Make walking meetings (like the West Wing) and get outside for fresh air.
On The Go
5. Walk it Off
Take the long way and walk or bike home. Just don’t go via the pub. Or the bakery. #PartyPooperAlert
6. Shopping Fun
Go grocery shopping and carry a basket filled to the brim through every aisle. Do a few laps around the perimeter before you check out. To add more fun, carry a small child in your other arm.
7. Live the High Life
Move into the fifth floor (or higher) of an apartment building with no elevator. Yeah, that’s a lot of stairs you have to climb everyday.
Home Improvements
8. Moving house
Save dollars on a removalist and get your strongman on… Offer to help your friends move and you’ll be the coolest pal ever!
9. Home renovations
Who needs a handy man when you can do it yourself?
10. Cleaning Machine
Clean the house from top to bottom. Vacuum, sweep and mop the floors. Want to make it even more fun? Time yourself. Then come over to my house and try to beat your previous time. 
11. Laundry
Carrying a ton of wet laundry up and down the stairs… and then hanging it on a clothes line is not so easy…
12. Old Fashioned Lawn Mowing
Remember the original lawn mower? Mowing the lawn was one of my chores as a kid. Fortunately we didn’t have too much grass… It takes solid hard yakka to maneuver the push lawn mower – a great sneaky workout!
Fun Times
13. Children playtime
Need I say more?
14. Jack it Out
Instead of laying passed out on the couch and being tempted to eat junk, do jumping jacks between the commercials of your favorite TV program. Two minute intervals of intense burst cardio will do the trick.
15. Go Clubbing
Get out on the dance floor. Dancing for hours with your friends is a super fun way to burn a ton of calories. Obviously, vodka fueled dancing is different… but still fun
Takeaway
Daily movement is an opportunity, and not something we should take for granted. While you may not have time for an official workout, these sneaky tricks will help to get you moving during the day.
What’s your favorite way to get in a sneaky workout? Let me know in the comments box below the post.
Get moving today!
KV
6 Replies
Great info. Making chores into play is really enjoyable, makes time fly!
Thanks Frances – happy to help!
Here’s some of the ways I sneak in a workout.
1. I park right down in the back blocks of the car park so I have a longer walk to the shops.
2. I don’t just push trolleys back to the trolley bays, I walk them back into the shops, and I collect other trolleys on the way. What a great workout pushing 5 or 6 trolleys whose wheels are all going different ways and don’t want to go where you’re pushing them.
3. When I go walking around the neighbourhood, I carry a plastic shopping bag and pick up rubbish along the way, then you have to walk out of your way to find a council bin to put the rubbish in. I will fill a shopping bag 7 or 8 times depending on the length of my walk, and it keeps the place clean.
4. I walk through the shopping centres really fast, then you have to manoeuvre really quickly to dodge slow moving people, prams and trolleys. Gives your brain a bit of a boost too, because strategy and forward planning is required to do it and not have any collisions. (You can work up quite a sweat with this one.)
5. When I catch the train to the city, I get off one stop early and walk the 10 or 15 mins to the next station, and then to where I’m going.
Awesome Keryn! I love #4 – you would fit in perfectly here in NYC! Everyone is walking really fast
Have a great day, Kate
Kate, your articles titled 15 solution for sneaking in a workout during a person busy schedule. Kate, you only talked about 14 of these solutions. You went from number 11 laundry to 13 Children Playtime. Number 12 is missing. Can you provide an update to this post.
Johnnie C.
Hey Johnnie! Thanks for letting me know. It’s updated now!
Have a great day, Kate