Small everyday things that can make you fitter!

Sorry if this thread has been made before.

Ok, this thread is to post things that you can do everyday to get you more exercise. Everyone has heard lots of them, but hopefully some people can post new ones. Here are some:

Park your car a few blocks away so you have to walk a little bit further.

Take the stairs, not the lift.

Fidget. Tap yourself on the knee or wiggle your fingers. These small things burn calories.

Drink water if you are hungry. If you are a bit hungry but you are going to have a meal in an hour, dont eat rubbish. Just have a water!

Stretch when you are watching TV. You will get distracted from the discomfort and you will get more flexible while being lazy and watching TV!


Please post your own!

 

Unless you have good reason not to cycle places. Or walk to a train station, get the train the walk from the train to your place of work.

 

-Walk everywhere instead of relying on buses.

 

A few more suggestions:

Wash up by hand - don't use a dishwasher.

Wash all your clothes by hand - don't use the washing machine or the launderette.

Hunt/gather your own food - don't use the supermarket.

 

I heard hitting your head against a wall burns lots of calories too

 

Lots of sex.

 

Hope my husband doesn't read this .... and not this

actually according to the 1991 Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex, just a passionate kiss burns 6.4 calories per minute. Ten minutes a day of kissing equates to about 23,000 calories ...or eight pounds a year

Anyway here are a few I just recently learned:

Bring the color blue into your day.... wear it, eat food off blue plates etc.... There's a good reason you won't see many fast-food restaurants decorated in blue: Believe it or not, the color blue functions as an appetite suppressant.

One for the "man with the remote" : Just get up to turn the TV on and off!! Raising the volume, and changing the channels will burn calories.

As mentioned ... do more walking!
Take an extra 2,000 steps each day. Walking every day can be beneficial. Two thousand steps will take you about a mile, and burn an extra 100 calories a day.

 

Better yet... everyone should be doing commando style laundry!
Yep you read it here at MAP first.

Commando Style Laundry.

Next time you finish at moving the iron at the gym or a hard day of work out in the yard or whatever... don't change your clothes and then take a shower. Your wasting both time and energy! Use your brain and your muscles!

Step into the shower with your clothes on!
Soap up.
Grap your socks and put them over your hands like mitts!
Go to work!

Your clothes get clean, your laundry get's done, you get a massive wrist workout from ringing your clothes out, you save water and electricity... what's not to like?!?!!?

Your skin will have a healthy glows and your whites will be the whitest they've been in a long time. It's the secret that facial spa's all over the world don't want you to know!

And... on top of all that... when you are force bivouaced in the jungle or an innercity low intensity war like the SAS or the Navy SEAL's often are... you don't have time to be doing laundry seperately from bathing.

The venerable old sniper maxim...
One shot. One kill.
Now applies to bathing and laundry!

Up next:

The Synergy of Doing Dishes and Bathing Simutaneously!

*disclaimer: I'm not responsible if your spouse or your significant other get's highly ****ed when she/he comes home and finds you in the shower with your socks over your hands as you're all lathered up in clothes and givin' it the 'ol elbow grease. Expect anger, shock and disbelief ... but those rash emotions will soon give way to an overwhelming sense of practicality and gratitude when they get force bivouacked with you on a recon mission won't they! Mine is still reading me the riot act for this.*sniff* :cry:

 

To be honest I find a lot of stuff like this a little contrived. Walking and/or cycling more and stretching in front of the TV are good ideas, but washing dishes instead of using a dishwasher? Fidgeting to burn more calories? Relatively pointless. Might as well save the time, use the dishwasher and go do some sprints or some bodyweight stuff. Even so, I feel that changes in diet and more exercise will address fitness issues a million times better than any little tips.

 

So I'm guessing that you didn't like my Hunter/Gatherer suggestion either?

 

LOL @ washing dishes w/ hands instead of using a dishwasher. Damn you rich people who have a choice.

 

Damn you rich people who are that stupid to think it will actually help your fitness to do normal work like all the normal people!

 

Well I agree with you here. It's the sort of stuff that is recommended to older people that are used to living a completely sedentary lifestyle. Fine for them, but it's not going to have much effect on martial artists. In fact I find walking long distance (I walk at least an hour everyday) gets my heart rate up and I want to do more vigorous exercise.

 

LOL, from which back garden or farm do you want to steal the eggs, chickens and vegetables ?


Christian

 

Actually some of those tips aren't that contrived really.

How many times I have chosen to take the stairs (either up or down) and people that I am with choose to use the elevator.

Or when I pull into a parking space on the last aisle and passengers all complain "why can't you park closer?".


Whenever you can walk more or climb more throughout your day really does help!


And having a washing machine and a dishwasher does not necesssarily make you a rich person

Yes any type of manual labor or landscaping is an excellant form of exercise as well.

 

I'm not knocking the idea of walking, taking the stairs and generally being more physically active, it's ones like fidgeting and doing the dishes that are pointless in relation to fitness. The more physically active you are the better.

 

agreed !

Darn I do alot of fidgeting & washing dishes.... I'll have to stop that non-productive behaviour

 

Environmentally, you are better off with a modern efficient dishwasher or laundry washer/dryer combo that handles larger loads. Compared to the extra time in the shower washing your clothes and you, you'll use less water with an efficient machine.

I'm all for the stairs though - escalators are one of my biggest peaves, second only to the lazy 99% of the people who step on and don't move, not even to the side to let me walk past. But thats only when stairs aren't available. I'm usually the only one going up the stairs (or one of a few) while people line up for the escalator to carry them up.

*sigh*

 

Why stop there? You can always get a garbage disposal put in your shower so you can prepare meals in there. I've heard that if you cut your steak with a brick, you can burn 500 calories an hour.

 

32oz Curls....12oz are for amateurs.