Add movement to your daily life. How to get more steps and increase your activity level.
By Emily Rutherford
Little things help a ton!
We know moving more throughout the day, and not just during our single gym visit, is extremely important to our overall physical and mental health, but how do you make it happen? It can be tough to get started.
Shooting for 10k steps?
Look for opportunities to move more, whether they are big or small. Finding those opportunities throughout your day can help you to hit 10k steps without having to go out for one single very long walk. Sometimes a long walk will work for your schedule but a lot of times it won’t. This is when the little things really add up.
Everyone who is currently participating in our healthy habits challenge has been kicking serious booty on hitting 10K steps a day. So below are some of their best tips to get it done and we hope that helps you to get started!
Walk!
Consider which of your errands you can walk to. There may be at least a few that you can reach from your home. Another super easy way to accumulate more steps is to park further away. Instead of trying to get the closest parking spot at the grocery store, take the very back one. This will add 100 – 200 steps pretty easily and doesn’t really take that much more time.
Take a 5 minute break every hour
This one adds a lot of steps over the course of an 8 hour work day or even just an afternoon. Similar to this blog – “The Grid” where you can do push ups every hour on the hour, instead just take a 5 minute break and walk for 5 minutes every hour. The steps add up, productivity increases and overall you will feel better!
TV Commercials or Ads while streaming
We would prefer you limit your couch time just vegging out. But if you are watching a tv show – or streaming, every time an ad comes on knocking out some “marching” in place to accumulate some steps.
Explore locally
Pilot butte is pretty centrally located in Bend, Oregon. Have you walked up? If so, how long ago? This is an easy hike and gets you a great view at the top. There are lots of local hikes in central Oregon that will help you reach your activity goals. Here are some other great hikes in central Oregon.
10 minutes after every meal
Walk for 10 minutes after every meal. This is a great one as it has proven to lower blood sugar levels by increasing your bodies insulin insensitivity. Take a 5 minute walk out and a 5 minute walk back after eating at a restaurant. These little walks also improve your digestion.
Don’t skip Wednesday and Saturday’s in the gym
On Saturday’s in the gym we drag a lot of sled. Weighted sled drags are great for building up steps, every 12 down and back (DAB) in the gym is a mile. The sled also does a great job of helping address low back pain, while also build great hamstring and glute strength.
Add movement and get healthier
Add movement to your daily routine. Hitting 10,000 steps is a great goal. But if you are just starting out and only hitting 3,000 steps, maybe the next benchmark should be 5,000 steps. Going to the gym is great but the other 23 hours out of the day have more impact then the 1 hour in the gym.
Interested in getting healthy? Book a Nutrition consult today!
OG has been helping Bend, Oregon residents be healthier and happier since May, 2009! Experience the difference.
