How Shorter Periods of Exercise During the Day Can Improve Your Health

Finding time to train is often the most challenging part of the fitness puzzle, but it's one worth solving. Regular physical activity is not just a luxury; it is a necessity for a healthy life.

So let's start this journey together. Medical studies comparing the effectiveness of prescribed drugs to regular physical activity found that exercise is equally as effective as commonly prescribed medications in the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease, treatment of heart failure and prevention of diabetes. Additionally, exercise was observed to be more effective than medication in the rehabilitation of stroke patients.

You do not need to block off a single segment of time to complete a 45- to 60-minute physical activity session. The beauty of this routine is its flexibility. You can do 10-15 minutes of movement spread throughout the day when you have a moment. For instance, after eating lunch, go for a walk. After any meal, walking or doing some form of activity for 10-15 minutes can completely change how you feel after eating.

Here are some ideas to work the big muscles of the body (legs), along with your heart and lungs:

Legs and Lungs Workout

• 15 minutes of walk/jog mix: But add 10-20 squats every five minutes.
• 15 minutes of biking or elliptical pyramid: Make each minute tougher than the previous minute (resistance or speed), but add 10 lunges/leg every five minutes.
• 10 minutes of elliptical: Tabata intervals (20 seconds fast/10 seconds easy)

If there are not multiple cardio machine options, do 40 minutes of a walk/run mix with squats or lunges every 5-10 minutes. Squats can be as simple as sitting on a chair and standing up several times daily. As we age, one of the most functional activities we can do is stand up, sit down and lift ourselves off the floor. These activities will assist with the strength, balance and stability needed for these major lifestyle components.

Accumulate this 40- to 45-minute workout in a single session or spread it throughout the day every other day and wait for the results to be noticed in a few short weeks. If you want to work the upper body, you can replace squats and lunges with push-ups, dips or dumbbell overhead presses and rows.

Physical inactivity represents a significant public-health issue with a wide range of negative impacts and is just as dangerous as smoking, poor food choices and sleep issues. In fact, exercise has been successfully utilized in treating and preventing various chronic conditions, including heart disease, pulmonary disease, diabetes and obesity.

If exercise came in a pill, it would be the most prescribed medicine. Unfortunately, prescribing exercise is a hard pill to swallow for many, but it does not have to be. To address this issue, Exercise is Medicine was established in 2007 by the American College of Sports Medicine to educate physicians and other health-care providers about the importance of exercise and close the widening gap between health care and health fitness.

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