Fun Fitness Alternatives!

“Hit the gym, quit sugar, cut down alcohol, eat more veggies, meditate, floss your teeth, and get a health cover…”

Cultivating healthy lifestyle can seem like a mammoth task, but there are many ways to make it easier. Staying fit need not be an Olympic level commitment, if you don’t like lifting weights in the gym then don’t do it. If you don’t like running, don’t do it. No point giving grief to your limbs if you are not cut out for it. However! Fitness and well-being is thought process and a lifestyle thing, there are ways to get your exercise dose complete without forking out gym membership.

Consider this: “Your main goal should be for you to enjoy the physical activity” and find a way to do it more than four times a week. Also combine this with making better decision about food you put in your body and that’s it.

Here is a list of my favourite fun fitness alternative that doesn’t feel like exercise:

Hiking, especially with friends: I always love a walk around Woodcraft Lake near Blacktown NSW, I’ll be surprised if you can’t find a place to stroll or hike with family or friends in Australia. In darn blue Aussie accent “Hell yeah maties get on and get going…”

Zumba Fitness: I must admit I tried it myself once or twice apart from being the only guy shaking my booty along in class full of ladies. I felt like quitting every 5 minutes but I stayed on and after 15 mins I was not only enjoying it but sweating like a pig.

Weekly sports night: I love to play Tennis, TT & Badminton and make sure I book at-least one weeknight for it apart from socialising it is great way to stay fit.

Active Video games: Believe it or not Microsoft invented its first video game in 1990’s step dance (which you see at every game parlour) to overcome obesity in American kids. This was even taken further by Wii, Nintendo, Kinetic and Sony, I personally love playing boxing on my Wii and it is bloody entertaining and great work out.

Play childhood games: I don’t mean to push world’s population on name of fitness  J J… However playing with my 3.5 year old daughter gives me a good run for my breath. Best part is you get to re-live your childhood with kids and they never go out of energy J

Adult Gymnastics: That thing that couples do? Yeah? Do more of that, self-explanatory. Moving on! (Don’t laugh)

Clean the house: Yeah, yeah that’s my usual answer to my wife when she asks me to get up and clean when in middle of an interesting TV show on Sunday morning. I know it sucks sometimes but you name it vacuuming, gardening, dishes, moping anything per say does get you sweaty. Isn’t it? So what are you waiting for? Do it for love. Clean house, happy partner and fitness all in one!

Yoga: Build flexibility, strength, sweat and relax all in one. There are million types of yoga, and it is fastest growing fitness industry in Australia so go and check it out yourself.

There are several other ways to keep fit like martial arts, salsa dancing, rock climbing, golf, ice skating, swimming the list goes on and on… Staying fit could never get easier than this best to follow this five point approach if you need a push over the fence.

Say yes to it before you say no, commit in advance, go with a friend or family, and expect to suck in the beginning (like I did with Zumba) and finally have fun.

Make your work break count!

Have you heard new adage “sitting is new smoking” …

When I heard about it I thought hell yeah! better I had quit smoking already now I need to quit sitting too? Until I got diagnosed with chronic back pain couple of years ago. I told my chiropractor “I am quite fit bloke” how come I got back pain in-spite of working out and leading an active lifestyle? He mentioned about science of posture and how human body is meant for hunting in the fields and not sitting in front of a damn computer whole day long. 

Now if this was 1860, I could have done something about “hunting in the fields” part but in 2017 it is a pretty tough gig. Specially living in this civilization makes it even harder to imitate our ancestral modus operandi.

We might have come from the planet of the apes but now since we are in the information age let’s see how we can still quench our postural thirst by staying in “well-being worker” limits. This is what I suggest as our plan of action to make our work breaks count.

Breaks are good, but do we take them? Ask yourself “what makes a good break for me?” taking yourself to local park? calling a friend? checking into gym? Laugh out loud with colleagues?  Or it might be just eating your food mindfully – which one is your fit ? Find it and use it.

Ensure you drink more than 2 litres water: Have you been asked this questions - Do you drink enough water? I am sure you would know the benefit but it has an added advantage of making you run to toilet pretty often and also break the sitting posture cycle for the sake of your bladder.

Get a fitness tracker: A little bit of technology to help you motivated and stay on track, most of the trackers can now start to beep (like mine) every 50th minute of an hour asking you to move your body (I said body…)

Don’t press the send button:  At times you’ll catch yourself sending an email to person sitting at the same floor? Have you done that? I know I have, why not try the alternate and walk to the person to have a chat.

Catch that yawn:  Yawning is actually a signal from your brain craving for oxygen! That is body’s natural response to initiate a break in posture. Next time when you catch yourself yawning at work get up and stretch yourself.

7 min refresher: It is scientifically proven 7 minutes is what it takes to break your postural pattern, experiment all the activities you could do in 7 minutes like brushing your teeth after lunch with an added advantage of dental hygiene.

Power Naps: There is a misconception, you don’t have to actually sleep merely closing your eyes and listening to some relaxing music for 10-20 mins would do the job.

In conclusion, it matters less what you do than why you’re doing it. Pay attention to three aspects of body, mind and spirit to tune into your own energy style and choose work break activities that will truly refresh you.