I know plenty of people who hate exercise but WANT to find a way to like it.
And that’s what today’s post is all about:
Exercising in a way where life doesn’t suck AND helps you reach your goals.
Luckily, this is exactly what we do for a living!
- “Exercise” sucks! Do this instead:
- 40 ways to exercise without realizing it.
- Next steps, and my personal rencontre to you:
I know what it's like to hate exercise, and ALSO want to lose weight and see results. Ugh.
We've built an unshortened visitor and polity virtually helping people overcome these obstacles – our Online Coaching Program helps people find exercises they love, and moreover how to make the right nutritional choices.
We are all on a unique journey and we’d love to help you with yours!
ExercIse Sucks. Do This Instead.
“But Steve, I don’t like to exercise!”
While some are like Odie and love to run virtually all day, others are like Garfield and finger like they must be allergic to exercise.
I hear this every day, and I’m not surprised.
After all, I think “exercise” sucks too.
Which is why we’re gonna focus on exercise that doesn’t finger like exercise!
After all, nutrition is like 90% of the equation.
Exercise is merely a supporting actor, which is why we don’t overly NEED to spend time doing exercise we hate.
We’ve once talked extensively on Nerd Fitness on how to eat nutritiously, so I won’t hash that out here.
So let’s talk well-nigh exercise.
Sure, it would be unconfined if we all strength trained 5 days a week and got super strong, but the reality is most of us don’t have that time – or the desire – to hit the gym.
And increasingly importantly – the weightier exercise program is the one you unquestionably do!
And thus today we’re going to focus on TWO key elements of getting increasingly exercise in our lives:
#1) FIDGETING:
Did you know ‘fidgeting’ (aka “small micromovements”) can worth for up to 350 spare calories burned per day?
Per the New York Times:
Overweight people have a tendency to sit, while lean ones have trouble holding still and spend two hours increasingly a day on their feet, pacing virtually and fidgeting, researchers are reporting in findings published today.
The difference translates into well-nigh 350 calories a day…
350 uneaten calories burned per day ain’t no joke!
As we imbricate in our “How many calories should I eat every day?” guide, urgent an uneaten 350 calories per day can result in sustainable weight loss and maintenance over time for many.
Not only that, but when you factor in inertia (an object at rest tends to stay at rest, and object in motion tends to stay in motion), it paints a pretty interesting picture:
We spend our lives trying to be increasingly “efficient.” What if the key to weight loss is to be LESS efficient?
From standing up increasingly commonly to parking FARTHER yonder from the grocery store, every spare step or movement counts. Today’s guide shares TONS of ways to get yourself used to moving increasingly frequently.
I’m unquestionably air drumming and shuffling my feet as we speak!
#2) FUN EXERCISE:
Who cares what the optimal workout is?
Unless you have a very specific physique you’re trying to build, ANY exercise is good exercise.
From dancing to yoga to climbing to roughhousing with your kids, it all counts.
This brings me to today’s point:
Exercise is a bonus. Exercise helps your heart get stronger, can help build muscle, usually gets you outside the house and titillating vitamin D, and brings you a litany of other health benefits. Also, any spare calories burned is a bonus!
Exercise can help us make fewer unhealthy supplies choices. Instead of “I earned this” you can start telling yourself: “If I’m going to exercise regularly, I might as well make it worth it by eating right too.”
Daily exercise is a unvarying reminder that we are leveling up our lives – that we should protract to make other good choices or we’re practically wasting our time.
This is the type of stuff we focus on – with personalized instruction, with each of our online coaching clients.
Some clients are learning Olympic lifting, while others are simply focusing on taking the stairs increasingly and tracking their food.
We are all on a unique journey and we’d love to help you with yours!
40 Ways to Exercise Without Exercising
#1) Hiking, expressly with friends – Strap on a pair of shoes, get out of the comfy confines of your hobbit-hole, and go explore the world virtually you!
Make sure you follow our Beginner Hiking Guide on how to find a hiking spot near you, what shoes to wear, what to bring with you, and more.
#2) Walking – No time to hike? Go for a simple walk. Plane a 15-minute brisk walk is unbearable time to get tropical to a mile walked, which gets you one step closer to Mordor.
Do you have a 30-minute meeting at work? Have a walking meeting instead. Steve Jobs was known for doing this.
You should know Tim, a member of our Nerd Fitness polity who lost 50 pounds – while injured – just by fixing his nutrition and going for long walks every day!
I’m proud that Tim used the philosophies laid out in our online courses under Nerd Fitness Prime to get his results!
#3) LARP – Live Action Role Playing. Might seem silly to those on the outside, but to those playing, it’s an wondrous venture that reminds us how superstitious our imaginations are.
Also, depending on the game, you could be wearing a heavy costume, swinging heavy weaponry, and running for your life!
#4) Waddle Climbing – I love waddle climbing. It’s one of the weightier arm/back/forearm workouts in existence, you get to finger like a badass when you reach the top of the wall, and all climbing routes are graded so you can level up the rencontre as you get stronger/fitter/better.
It’s a fit nerd’s dream!
#5) Geocaching – If waddle climbing is a fit-nerd’s dream, then geocaching is an venture nerd’s dream brought to life. Wilt a real-life treasure-hunter (Lara Croft? Nathan Drake? You decide!), and get a unconfined workout in while you’re at it.
Or, if you’re truly nerdy, you can do some Digital Geocaching with Pokemon Go or Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.
#6) Dancing – Ever tried serious swing dancing? You’ll be sweating within ten minutes. How well-nigh hip hop? Drenched in sweat, and sore as hell the next day.
Zumba? Tango? Flamenco? You’d be surprised at what you can sign up for and what will hoist your heart rate.
#7) Roughhousing with your kids. I don’t have kids, but when I do, you can bet your ass I’ll be the dad out rolling virtually in the when yard with them. Don’t forget what it’s like to be a kid – it keeps you young.
I really enjoyed this vendible from Art of Manliness on the importance of roughhousing!
#8) Climbing on stuff – A few years back, I attended a unconfined conference, Midoricon, and I was walking through the woods with NF Rebel Joe (No, not THAT Joe).
It was superstitious to see this guy, having lost 100 pounds since finding Nerd Fitness, explore the woods like it was no problem: climbing on stumps, balancing on fallen trees, climbing trees, and more.
We work with LOTS of Coaching Clients to get them outdoors and help build them “fun climbing programs” that shrivel tons of calories but don’t really finger like exercise.
#9) Martial arts – Be honest. You watched The Matrix, you heard Neo go “I know Kung Fu” and you wanted to be worldly-wise to one day say the same thing.
Whether it’s Kung Fu, Muay Thai, Tae Kwon Do, Karate or Capoeira (breakdance fighting, seriously), there’s a martial art out there that will make you finger like a badass.
And might help you defeat your archenemy.
#10 Consider a standing desk – Although we all know that correlation does not prove causation, it’s no surprise that there’s a strong correlation between sitting all day and an unhealthy lifestyle.
Why not fix your posture, strengthen your legs, get increasingly “fidget time” in, and spend the day stuff increasingly productive with a standing desk? I have THIS desk and it allows me to switch between sitting and standing.
If you don’t want to stand all day, make sure you read up on our guide, “how to survive sitting all day in an office.”
#11) Have an zippy meeting – Hat tip to Charlie Hoehn on this one. If somebody wants to meet up with you for coffee, suggest something active: throwing a baseball, tossing a frisbee, going for a hike – anything that gets you up and moving.
I say yes to pretty much everyone that invites me to play golf. Wink wink.
#12) You know… that thing that consenting adults do?
Yeah. Do that.
Self-explanatory.
Moving on…
#13) Clean! – Ugh, nobody likes to wipe the house/apartment. It’s not my favorite thing to do. So I instead make a game out of it.
I see how much I can succeed with a single song stoping at max volume, while probably moreover dancing. I moreover CRUSH podcasts while doing the dishes.
Of course, without getting through one song, I icon “welp, I’ve once started, might as well alimony going.”
#14) Try handstands – This is a fun worriedness that builds up some serious arm and cadre strength and will leave you sweating bullets without plane a few minutes.
So go find a park, go do handstands, cartwheels, somersaults, and whatever else makes you finger young again.
Here’s our guide on How to Do Handstands.
#15) Parkour – Our Beginner’s Guide to Parkour is one of the most popular on Nerd Fitness. I don’t superintendency how old you are, there’s no reason you can’t get started with rolling virtually in your yard and vaulting over picnic tables and velocipede racks.
Or, you can do it in your office:
#16) Playout – Is Parkour too serious for you? Try a playout! Spiderman was on to something – climbing walls, swinging from skyscrapers, and popping flips virtually the bad guys.
You might not be worldly-wise to swing between buildings, but you can definitely visit a playground in your zone and get creative!
#17) Adult gymnastics – In the same vein as parkour, gymnastics will help you build some of the BEST real-world strength you can get with any type of exercise, and it’s all washed-up in a playful way without a single weight stuff picked up.
Swing from rings, somersault, flip onto pads, and more.
There are gyms all over the country.
#18) Yoga – Build flexibility and strength, plus learn to freaking relax.
There are a million kinds of Yoga, including superstitious stuff like Acro-Yoga, victual goat Yoga (not kidding), and Yoga with beer.
Sign up for a few variegated kinds and see which one lines up the weightier with what you’re looking for.
#19) Play video games that make you be zippy – Beat Saber. DDR (Dance Flit Revolution) counts too. Just Move. Anything that gets you off your ass and moving!
Oh, what’s that? You’re playing a normal game like Grand Theft Auto V? Make a rule that you can only play while standing up, or that you have to do 10 push-ups every time you die.
That’s what I do to alimony myself from spending twelve hours on the hovel in marathon gaming sessions!
#20) Play on a playground – Go lanugo the slide, swing wideness the monkey bars, climb the rope all, wastefulness on the wastefulness beam.
Create an obstacle undertow for yourself and see how quickly you can get through it.
You can plane work out on a playground too:
#21) Play a musical instrument – Did you know playing musical instruments can shrivel a boatload of calories too?
I imagine this is doubly true if you’re dancing virtually like Taylor Davies playing the violin.
#22) Join a Rec League – New in town? Want to be zippy and meet people? Join a co-ed kickball, softball, or tennis league.
You get to exercise AND it’s a unconfined way to meet new people through exercise!
Yoga Mats
Strauss Designer Yoga Mat (Butterfly) 5mm (Pink)
CLASSIC YOGA MAT: 68" Long and 24" wide ensures comfort for all types of exercise. The 4mm thick premium mat comfortably cushions spine, hips, knees, and elbows on hard floors while keeping you balanced.
- The 15 mistakes you don't want to make.
- Full guide to the most constructive nutrition and why it works.
- Complete and track your first workout today, no gym required.
#23) Velocipede to work – I know there are a lot of Rebels in our polity who dropped a tuft of weight by making one change: they biked to work, or biked to their friend’s house, or started wanderlust generally.
You get from Point A to Point B, you save money on gas, and you get a workout.
Plus, you can do it with friends!
Here’s our Guide to Biking if you want some help getting started.
#24) Play a diaper game – What games did you play as a child? Capture the flag? Kick the can? Simple tag?
Get a few friends together and requite it a try – it will be the most fun you’ve had in a while!
#25) Park at the far end of the parking lot – Every step counts.
Every tiny visualization that is slightly variegated than the “OLD you” counts.
IT ALL COUNTS when it comes to burning increasingly calories than you slosh every day.
#26) Take the stairs. It’s only two flights! And we are designed to move. You can do this.
Sure, you’ll get winded the first handful of times. But it sooner becomes routine.
And it all counts! Make a game out of it.
#27) Crush audiobooks while “exercising.” This is tabbed ‘temptation bundling.‘ Pair something you love with an worriedness you’re trying to do increasingly of.
But I bet if you could only listen to Harry Potter (for the 600th time) while walking on a treadmill, you’d be increasingly likely to get to the gym.
#28) Build stuff. Whether you’re towers a fort with your kid in the backyard, or trying to icon out why you have 5 uneaten screws in that IKEA dresser you’re putting together, towers stuff involves lots of moving and limp and picking up and maneuvering.
Warning: you’ll swear no less than 100 times towers furniture. Earmuffs!
#29) Sit in a squat, or pike position on the floor while watching TV. No, not leaning versus the couch. Sitting up urgently engaging your core!
You can moreover do some sort of stretch or movement like these bodyweight exercises during commercials (or in the 15 seconds between Netflix episodes!)
#30) Impromptu flit parties. Kids or no kids, I find that unconfined Disney songs are fantastic for bringing out your inner child.
Blast the tunes, flit virtually the house, and be absurd. WHO CARES! As a wise woman once said…”Let it gooooooo.”
#31) Go for a walk while on the phone. What if you just decided you had to stand for all of your phone calls?
For starters, I know many people who do phone interviews while standing considering it makes them increasingly zestful and a largest guest.
Next: you’re gonna get so many steps in while on the phone without realizing it!
#32) Having an impromptu picnic. Instead of sitting and gorging yourself at the dining room table, why not eat on the floor?
Grab a wrap or a towel, eat in your living room or throne out into the backyard, and make it a picnic!
You’ll need to retread your posture and seating style constantly.
#33) Sit in a squat. We imbricate this in our “How to squat” guide, but sitting in a deep squat – often for long timeframes – is built into us as a species! We’ve just wilt soft from sitting in chairs all day long.
I try to yaffle 15 minutes of “squat time” each day – sitting in a squat while reading a installment in a book, or journaling, or answering an email with my palmtop on the ground.
Here I am sitting in a squat while reading Level Up Your Life (available online and in bookstores nationwide!)
#34) The “Pull-up bar Tax”. Get yourself a door-frame pull-up bar. Put it on a door that you have to navigate through regularly.
And every time you go through, you have to do either 1 pull-up, 1 negative pull-up, or 10 seconds of hanging from the bar.
Can’t do a pull-up yet? Learn how to get your first pull-up or chin-up.
#35) Lasers virtually the house. Set up colored string pulled tightly wideness your kid’s rooms or in unrepealable hallways, and you have to go over and under the lasers each time you traverse the hallway.
Don’t touch the lasers!
#36) Climb a tree. Your level of safety and worthiness on this will be dependent on your wits here, but I remember climbing trees like a monkey as a kid and loving every minute of it.
Even if it’s just hanging from a tree workshop or trying to scramble up to a low branch, it can be a unconfined way to “exercise.”
#37) The floor is lava. This is both unconfined for exercising virtually your apartment, for a fun stage night or night with the kids, and for playing True American. Though one is slightly increasingly healthy than the other.
#38) Casual Parkour. From lamister cracks on the sidewalk to balancing on curbs, or jumping from tile to tile, or hopping up onto a seat and then when down, it all counts!
Just get yourself to move differently than you would have otherwise! We are currently working with a woman who has lost 100-pounds through our Coaching Program, and her exercise is all “fun parkour in the woods overdue the house!”
#39) Literally fidget more! Yes, from tapping your toes to music and twitching your legs to the write-up of the music. Getting up and sitting when down. Doing laps virtually your office.
You don’t need to get a standing sedentary or treadmill desk, but there’s a definite correlation between those that can’t sit still and soul composition.[1]
#40) Your kid is a backpack! From piggyback rides to playing horsey, staying zippy with your kids is really powerful in instilling a love of fitness in them.
If you’re a badass mom like Brownwyn – a success story from Nerd Fitness Prime, you can plane do pull-ups while your kid holds on!
Here are increasingly tips on how to work out as a whole family.
- The 15 mistakes you don't want to make.
- Full guide to the most constructive nutrition and why it works.
- Complete and track your first workout today, no gym required.
Challenge yourself to Have fun: Next Steps!
If you are looking for increasingly guidance vastitude the 40 Fun Exercise Suggestions above, we have three options to protract your journey:
1) Join our epic Online Coaching Program! We create personalized programs for each consumer based on their lifestyle, goals, and personality. From parkour in the park to just walking increasingly with your children, or plane “becoming a badass powerlifter,” we cater each wits to each person.
2) If you’re looking for a tuft of fun ways to exercise, trammels out NF Journey. Our fun habit-building app helps you move increasingly frequently, eat healthier, and level up your life (literally).
We assign fun missions daily to get you to exercise in a way that doesn’t feel like exercise…because it’ll finger like a side quest instead.
Try your self-ruling trial (no credit vellum needed) right here:
3) Enlist in The Rebellion (it’s free)! Sign up for our biweekly newsletter and join the Nerd Fitness Rebellion!
I’ll send you tons of self-ruling guides and bonuses to help you get started on your journey today.
Sign up below:
- The 15 mistakes you don't want to make.
- Full guide to the most constructive nutrition and why it works.
- Complete and track your first workout today, no gym required.
No matter which path you pick above, I want you to commit to trying something new, or doing something different, at some point in the next week:
- Say yes surpassing you can say no. Stop saying “I don’t have time” and realize you do. Stop saying “I can’t sire it” and find a way to make it a priority. Do all of this surpassing you can talk yourself out of it. The weightier way to do that?
- Commit in advance. Put lanugo a petrifaction and make an investment in yourself. I pre-paid 6 weeks of swing flit lessons. Having once paid for it, I knew I’d be just throwing my money yonder if I didn’t attend.
- Go with a friend. I went to my swing classes alone, which forced me to remoter develop my social skills, but if you happen to be TOO wrung to shepherd a class, get a friend to stilt you there.
- Expect to suck. If you are learning a new skill, expect to suck at it. You’ll get largest as long as you remember to…
- Have fun. Remember, we could get hit by a bus tomorrow. Every day whilom ground is a blessing, so enjoy it!
- When in doubt, move more.
That one thing you unchangingly wanted to try but have been putting off?
Today’s a good day to get started. Just take that FIRST step.
Google classes in your city. Find a site that focuses on beginners, and read well-nigh it. If there’s a place to pre-pay or make a deposit, do it.
And then go.
Use 20 seconds of courage if you have to.
What’s the one new thing you’re going to try this month?
-Steve
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photo credit: Reiterlied 02/52 – Confidence, JD Hancock Garfield, treadmill fall, Denes Paragi © 123RF.com, It’s Unchangingly Autumn: Lazer Hallway, lzflzf © 123RF.com
The post 40 Fun Ways to Exercise (Without Realizing It) first appeared on Nerd Fitness.
