By Jamie Yu

Don’t you just hate it when life’s daily routine gets in the way of you finding time to exercise?

For some of us, work and family take priority over our health. Not to say that’s a bad thing, but if you aren’t fit and healthy, do you not think your family and work life will suffer in return? It is possible to find time to exercise and still not neglect the other importance aspects of your life. Plus, you don’t need anything more than 15 minutes maximum in your day.

It’s been shown in studies that short high intense bursts of exercise for a few minutes per day actually has the same health benefits of at least one hour of “moderate paced” exercise. The trick is get the heart-rate up for a short period of time, and then bring it back down to lesser rate for short period of time, and repeat this for several minutes.

Here are few things you could try after a brief warm-up:

• Stair Running:
  Your stairs at home can be used as a great way to exercise, start by sprinting up them. Once you’re at the top, walk back down them. Repeat this several times. You can also do this on an outside flight of stairs if you have access to them.
  

• Shuttle Runs:
  You can do this out in your backyard. Set up cones at either end and also place two in the middle, about 5 meters apart. You can create make-shift cones out of common household objects like sauce pan lids or bowls even! From the first cone, sprint to the second cone and sprint back to the first cone and then run to the third cone and then return to the first cone and then sprint to the last cone and sprint back to the first cone again. Ensure you are bending down and touching each cone every time. Straight after this, do a lap or two of the yard at walking pace, getting your breath back and lowering your heart rate, and then repeat the shuttle run once more. Do about 3-4 circuits. Again, you could do this in the nearby park if you have one.
  

• Burpees and Jumping Jacks:
  If you’re not feeling as fit to perform the above, then you could try a little circuit of twenty burpees or jumping jacks followed by a sprint on the spot, getting your knees up high for thirty seconds. Then, to bring your heart rate down somewhat, you can do some marching on the spot for sixty seconds and then repeat. You can do this circuit absolutely anywhere, including your bedroom or living area at home.
  

Besides the fat burning benefits, it’s been shown that this type of exercise can also improve the function and structure of blood vessels, in particular arteries that deliver blood to our muscles and heart.

So now there is no excuse for not finding the time to exercise….

So what are you waiting for?

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 1:01 am and is filed under Daily Life, Fitness.