The Benefit of Exercise Bursts: Better Than You Realize

Exercising is important for not only your physical health, but also your mental well-being. According to Prevention.com, you don't need to spend an hour a day working out. Bursts of energetic activity are more advantageous than you realize. Exercising in 10-minute intervals throughout the day can help you lose weight faster in five months than exercising 20 to 40 minutes at a time here and there.

Next time you think you don't have time or patience to knock out a solid workout, consider the exercises below, which can be done in quick bursts:

Quick walks
While picking up the paper in the morning, take a brisk walk up and down the street. Just getting in this habit will start your morning off right and help you feel good about squeezing in the time. You will find yourself doing this again when you get the mail or step outside to check the weather.

Dumbbells
When you sit in bed at night before falling asleep do a few repetitions of dumbbell lifts. You don't have to use heavy weights, just a pound or two. Have them sitting under your bed waiting for you. Again, once you get into the habit you will find yourself doing a few repetitions in the morning when you wake up as well.

Hip extensions
Long periods of sitting can tighten hip muscles and cause aches and pains. We recommend doing 12 to 15 hip extensions every day. To do this, stand behind a chair with your feet hip-distance apart and lift one leg at a time behind you. Hold for a moment and set it back down. This should only take a few minutes, and you can squeeze it in whenever you feel like.

Additional stairs
When you are going up or down the stairs in your home, head back up or down and do it again. Just add a quick burst in there no matter what time it is. If you are in a hurry, then obviously this won't work, but if you are just grabbing a book or a snack, give yourself another set of stairs for good measure.

Meditation
Meditate when you wake up or before you go to bed. An ideal time would be just after doing your curls. Meditating only needs to be a few minutes, but it is amazing how good a few moments of concentrated silence can be. Once your day gets going, this can be harder to fit in, so a few moments of quiet first thing in the morning is best.

There is no doubt that fitting in exercise routines can be difficult when you have so much going on. Do yourself a favor and find little spurts here and there. Once your habit takes off, you won't even realize you are working out, but your family and friends will surely notice.