How To Get Exercise Out
Of Your Daily Activities

By Shelley Geoffrey

It seems the most common excuse women have for not exercising, or not regularly at least, is a lack of time. The thing is, a modern lifestyle that includes work, household chores, relationships and socialising does indeed leave little time each day to get to a gym or fitness centre to do some physical activity. However, what may really be lacking is just a little imagination and the desire to find in any daily task an opportunity to get some exercise.

I have been interviewing fitness athletes from all over the world for some years now and the one thing they all have in common is an unshakeable desire to work out, as well as the ability to make personal sacrifices in order to do so. I have met some women who have become champions in spite of having a full time job and three kids in tow, and others who moved to the States to follow their dream and had to work two jobs just to make ends meet. There are even many girls out there who have to commute for two hours to get to a gym, and another two back home and yet all of these women have such admirable determination to achieve their goals.
These examples show that when you really want something you can get it, no matter what. I am not denying there are often difficulties in managing all your day-to-day activities along with an exercise program, but I would suggest that they could be overcome. In addition, and this is the point of this article, when you are focussed and decided upon exercising, it is actually possible to convert many daily activities into little training sessions that when compounded make a big difference.
We’re not talking about exercise sessions that could take the place of real training here, but using daily activities that have positive benefits, which when all added together give you a certain advantage when it comes to staying in shape and being body aware. In fact, some time ago a study into the matter showed that people who trained regularly and also, throughout the day, kept consciously contracting the muscles they had trained that day gained much more development and definition in the area than those who left the gym and immediately lost mental contact with the muscle group in question.
Put another way, the researchers showed that those who disconnected totally from their training after a workout progressed more slowly than those who continued to feel and contract the muscles they had trained for some time afterwards. The explanation is that this keeps the neuron paths that stimulate muscle fibres open, allowing for greater muscle control and increasing nervous stimulation in the following workout.
It is also worth pointing out that these small but very frequent contractions help rid the muscle of metabolic residue and increase blood flow to it, thus supplying more oxygen and nutrients for recovery and growth. So, maintaining a mind-muscle connection and frequently stretching and contracting the various muscles in the body has a positive effect on muscular function, development and physical appearance.