As a student I know that most of us won't always have the time or goodwill to go to the gym or to change clothes for exercising otherwise. While exercise is important for looking better and feeling better, I also often happen to wonder 'but when should I do that?' or 'meh, I don't want to dress up for that'. Therefore, I will now post some advices about incorporating exercise in things you do on a daily base, regardless of how much time you have.
The first advice is to walk or ride your bike whenever you can. Of course, when it is raining cats and dogs, you are excused, but taking the bus on a sunny day while you only have a 10 minute walk or 5 minute bike ride ahead cannot be justified by anyone. A nice bonus is that you get to catch some sun, which means that your body receives vitamin D, which stimulates the production of calcium, which - in turn - is good for your bones, nails, and teeth.
The second thing to do is to replace the elevators and escalators by stairs. Sure, for a 10 floor building, you may start out with walking only half of the stairs and then continue by elevator/escalator, but in a 4 floor building there is no excuse unless you are in a wheelchair or bound to walking with crutches.
My third advice is something I tried out myself. Given that you can stand the looks of people when they see you doing it, you might hold your bottles of water in your hands and train your biceps as you walk.Simply buy or fill two 0.5 litre bottles with water and hold one in each of your hands. Then, when you walk on your left foot you train your right biceps and the other way round. Once you arrived at your destination, drink the water. Because it is good for you.
The fourth thing you might do is for when you stand in a queue or in the bus/train.Squeeze your butt, hold it for a few seconds and then relax again. It is fairly simple and nobody has to see you doing it when it is crowded or when you stand strategically, but you will see results if you manage to do this a couple of times on a daily base!
Last but not least: your abs! You can train them by squeezing them all day long. Doing this will give you a better posture, a slimmer silhouette and you also train your abdominal muscles to become slightly stronger. Although the real thing is doing sit-ups, this exercise is effective for those do not want to lie down on the floor.
So, what do you do to stay in shape? Do you make the most of little moments like I do or do you plan actual exercises and gym sessions? Let me know!
