Day 1563 - Easing into exercise

Exercising for just 4 minutes a day ...

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As you know, I'm not much into exercise.  I don't love it so I don't often prioritise my time to include it.  I mean, I walk a lot, and I do cheerleading classes, but I don't do any serious "let's lose weight and tone your body" type exercise.  Given the cottage cheese around my body is starting to multiply and the sagging skin is starting to look like drapery, I figured I should probably get my body back to being tight.  Sigh.  So I'm factoring in tiny bits of exercise throughout the day.




I started slow: 20 situps and some stretching exercises for my back.  Then the following day I increased it to 30 situps, plank and more stretching.  Then I hit 40 situps, plank, stretching and arm exercises.  I am currently up to 50 situps, plank, stretching, arms and running up and down the stairs ten times. I am taking little bites each day to start forming this new habit.  And I'm doing it all in well under 5 minutes which is kinda cool.  No excuses ...

Apparently we don't need to go hard from the start to get our exercise endorphins flowing and get some health benefits.  A recent Norwegian study found that just four minutes of exercise at 90% maximum effort just three days a week can reduce our blood sugar levels by 5%.  It is suggested by "Prevention Magazine" that we start with 4 minutes a day then continue to add to it until we're doing a recommended 75 minutes a week.

I doubt I'll ever do 75 minutes of my new stretch, flex, toning exercises every week, but combined with a 40 minute walk around the lake and an hour cheerleading class (plus the occasional dance around the lounge room to Pitbull) I'll well and truly crash through the laziness barrier.

Do you reckon you could spare 4 minutes?