The flip side of that coin is that I spent many hours in my desk chair, staring at my monitor, and unfortunately many hours hunched over my keyboard. Not good, I know. I envy friends who have physical jobs as they get their exercise while working. But, we all know there is no one right, perfect answer. EVERYTHING has its trade-offs.
But since I returned from my training in Sedona, I have been toying with the idea of LIFE BEING EXERCISE. And today my thoughts were justifed when I found this article ~
How To Exercise Without Really Trying
This is very much what I have been thinking about. Why do we feel like we have to "go to" the gym, or "go to" yoga class, or "go to" Zumba, to get exercise? Certainly the social aspect of the "going to" makes it more enjoyable (or not ~ I guess it depends on one's personality).
Trust me ~ as a yoga instructor, I'm not saying "don't go to" class. However, typically a class lasts only 60 minutes, while the minutes we are typically awake during a 24 hour period, totals 960 minutes. Why can't we take advantage of those extra 900 minutes each day and use those moments to focus on our movements?
A good friend of mine has shared with me her inability to exercise at home, very similar to my challenge of creating a TRUE Home Yoga Practice. So I say to both my friend and myself .... CARPE MOMENTO. Let's make EVERY MOMENT be an exercise.
Here are the movements I have experimented with myself:
1. Let's start with something we ALL do ... sit on the toilet. Be aware of your leg muscles when lowering down and standing up. Don't hang onto the sink or wall ... inhale completely, and then exhale and sit down using the thighs, and drawing the belly in . Stand up on the inhale, again using the thigh muscles. You can also do leg extensions while on the pot. Slow the movement down, move with your breath, and FEEL it.
2. My mother was The Queen of this one. Use the extra few moments in bed each morning to stretch your arms and hands UP. Open and close the hands, do wrist circles, palms to the ceiling and twist the hands from side to side. Then roll on one side and do the yoga pose of cat and cow. Wake up your spine. BREATHE. Then visualize and plan your day from bed. What we think, we create.
3. When brushing your teeth ~ do legs lifts backwards, forward, and to each side. My electric toothbrush beeps every 30 seconds; there is my cue to change directions and/or sides. Be sure to bend over the sink using your core to hold you up instead hunching over the sink and resting your forearms.
4. When waiting for the microwave, do side-stretches or forward bends.
5. When at the sink, stand up on your toes and release. I also like to do this when standing in line at the grocery store.
6. Another fun experiment when standing in line .... imagine you have angel wings folded into your shoulder blades. While you're waiting, E X P A N D those wings and flap them free. You might be surprised at who turns to look at you; your energy DOES expand and light up when you do that.
7. When watching TV, get down on the floor and do some forward folds over your legs. You can still see the screen. Or if you can't tear yourself away from the TV show, at LEAST do it during the commercials. Even a few crunches during each commercial will add up to big benefits.
I bet everyone of us could add to this list, and I invite you to share your thoughts below. I struggle with going to exercise class just like most everyone else. But I bet we would all agree that once the class is over, WE FEEL GREAT. So let's take that thought one step further .... if EVERY MOMENT was an exercise, then we would feel great all of the time. And maybe because we DO feel great, we'd be more willing to GO TO that social exercise class and feel even better.
Hey ~ NONE of us are getting any younger, and as my wise sister recently said to me ...
WALK, or GET A WALKER.
Let's take advantage of every second of every day and make our Life a Living Exercise.
I welcome your ideas!
From my almost 60 year old heart to yours ~
Diana
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