3 smart ways to squeeze exercise into your day

Regular exercise can help you feel well, sleep better and enjoy long-term health benefits. With a creative approach and positive attitude, staying active is easier than you think, even with a busy schedule. Here are three smart ways to squeeze exercise into your day.

If finding a solid 30-minute block of time in your day for exercise is challenging, try breaking it up into three 10-minute sessions.

• Split your workout into fifteen 10-minute sessions per week, comprising 10 aerobic sessions, three strength training sessions and two stretching or yoga sessions – or use different combinations that better suit your needs.
• Divide the 10 minutes into two minutes of warming up, six minutes of working out and two minutes of warming down.
• Make sure you really exert yourself when you're working out. It's the only way short spurts of exercise can be effective. Try to put in an effort that rates four on a scale of one to five.

We expend far less effort than we once did in everyday life thanks to cars, labour-saving equipment and domestic outsourcing. Here are some tips on how to work a little more exercise into your daily routine.

• Instead of paying someone else to do it, wash the car, clean the windows, mow the lawn, rake the leaves, scrub the bathroom or do the vacuuming yourself. It's all good aerobic exercise and you'll save money.
• Walk up escalators and, if you can, use the stairs instead of taking elevators.
• Play with your children or grandchildren instead of supervising their games from the sidelines. Walk them to school if it's a local one. The daily exercise will be good for you and give the children a healthy habit for life.
• When you sit down, try to do so very slowly, using your muscles to control your movements rather than flopping down into a chair.
• As you stand up, let your abdominal muscles do the work. Don't use your arms and don't rock your body to gain momentum.
• If you need to post a letter or buy a carton of milk, walk to the local mailbox or shop rather than hopping in your car.
• When lifting bags of groceries into your car, use muscle power rather than momentum.

Regular exercise is part of a healthy lifestyle, but it's important to adopt safe workout practices that do not expose your body to potential harm.

• Don't begin your exercise with a pre-workout stretch. It's now thought that this may do more harm than good because it's impossible to properly stretch cold muscles. Instead, start your workout with a walk to warm up your muscles.
• To avoid dehydration, drink plenty of water before, during and after your workout.
• Start any workout slowly to reduce the risk of injuring cold muscles. Gradually increase the intensity of the workout. The higher your body temperature, the better your muscles will perform and the more efficiently they will use oxygen and nutrients.

At the end of an exercise session

• Allow enough time to warm down and bring your heart rate back to normal. Ideally, allocate sufficient time for your workout to do some deep stretching while your muscles are still warm.
• Cool down properly following your workout before you take a shower. Wait for 5 to 10 minutes and then have a lukewarm shower. Otherwise, your elevated body temperature combined with the heat of the water could lead to dizziness, dehydration or faintness.

Even short bouts of exercise and day-to-day tasks around the house can add up to a decent amount of physical activity, so stop worrying about finding the time for lengthy workouts and start enjoying the benefits of a healthier lifestyle.