Ok, first of all, I want to point out that all movement is good for something. The title of this is just something I used to think a lot about when considering whether I had exercised enough for the day. It's easy to have very black and white thinking when it came to exercise. For example, if I didn't sweat or wasn't sore the next day, it didn't "count". As you can imagine, that's really stressful when you don't have a lot of extra time on your hands. You might have a lot of movement built into your day that you may be discounting as not important, when in reality it can all be helpful. On the other hand, you can also seek small opportunities to weave in movement to get a lot of great benefits.
Movement can be used to improve your mood, stretch your body, wake you up, improve your heart health, get stronger, socialize....so many things. So, it's important to know your purpose when considering movement. For me, I sit a lot for my job and my goals are cardiovascular health, strength, and to combat just general sendentary-ness (not a word, but you get it). When I began to change my thought processes about what was important, I learned that I could use lots of things to achieve those goals and not only did my stress decrease, but my life got easier and by body physically felt better.
According to the American Heart Association, iy is recommended that you partake in 150 minutes of mild to moderate cardio exercise per week which is about 20 minutes per day. If I take the number of times that I run up and down my stairs for kids clothes, plus a brisk walk at lunch, and lifting my toddler multiple times, I've already knocked out a good chunk of that time. In this busy season of my life, I would love to go to the gym and have an hour or two to myself to workout, but it's not my priority. If it is for you, absolutely go ahead and do it. For me, I'm focusing on as much sleep as possible, spending some time with my kiddos, and a couple house tasks here and there.
I wanted to get some more ideas for movement I could just incorporate into my regular day so I did some brainstorming and here's what I came up with (I work from home so may need generalizing to an office or other setting):
Using a standing desk while doing intermittent squats while working
Using my second floor bathroom instead of main floor to go up another flight of stairs
Lifting my toddler above my head 5 times after getting pajamas on
Dance party with kids
"Rucking" aka backpack with books to raise my heart rate while walking on treadmill
Push ups on counter while waiting for lunch to heat up
I rarely do a 20-30 minute workout anymore. If I do, it's probably while I'm watching Netflix during my "me time" after kids have gone to bed. If you have any other ideas for me, I'm all ears 😁
Long story short, it's okay to let yourself off the hook from doing the crazy workouts you did when you were younger. There is still so much benefit from general movement and just raising your heart rate during the day. In fact, the stress you may put on yourself to fit in a formal workout could be more detrimental than not working out.
Here's to all the busy folks out there who are navigating new priorities and obligations, especially with kids. There will be another season with more time and space for hitting the gym. Until then, try some built in movement 😊
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