Exercise may not be fun, but it isn’t that hard. You don’t need more than 20 minutes a day, and that’s something pretty much everyone can spare. We often neglect our physical health because we’re full of bad excuses. If that sounds like you, make this weekend the one where you start getting in shape.
Photo sby Mike Baird, Rennett Stowe, Sailor Coruscant, Highways Agency
Don’t Bother With Crap You Don’t Need
With the amount of equipment you’ll find in a gym, it’s easy to believe you need a lot of stuff to exercise. Sure, that fancy equipment works fine, but people got in shape without it for a long time before it was an option. There’s no reason you can’t do this, too, so don’t assume you need to spend a lot of money. You don’t need to spend any, really, unless you plan to run and need a decent pair of shoes.
In fact, you can get a complete workout with nothing but your body. That’s how convicts do it. However you decide to exercise, the point is that you don’t need a bunch of stuff. Stuff works better as a reason to put off the exercise you can start doing today. Don’t go out and buy anything. Just go work out.
Put Together A Plan You Can Follow
Nobody sticks with an exercise routine they hate. You have to at least be able to tolerate a fair amount of the workout you plan for yourself and find a way to stay motivated to do the rest. If you like the traditional route — that is, exercising for around 30-45 minutes a few days a week — we put together a Lifehacker workout routine that you can follow easily. You can even track your progress.
If you have less time, or just prefer to pack in an intense workout into fewer minutes, we made a mini-app that generates 20-minute workouts for you. Each one is randomly created based on the type of workout you want. They all take 20 minutes and your goal is to do one six days a week with one day set aside for relaxation. After posting this, we learned about a web and mobile app called Sworkit that does a similar thing, only it isn’t limited to 20 minutes. You can put together a randomly-generated routine for virtually any time limit up to an hour. What’s better is that you’re not limited to your web browser and can take it with you on your Android or iPhone.
Don’t Start A Great Routine And Then Sit All Day Long
Getting exercise is important, but it doesn’t mean much if you’re sitting down all day. Fortunately that can be easily-remedied by just getting up once in a awhile, doing some desk exercises, and/or switching to a standing desk. The important thing is that you’re not a lumpy human being for most hours of your life. When you’re active for only a very small portion of a given day, exercise isn’t going to help you all that much.
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