Learning a new dance move… Learning to juggle… Walk a bit further for your smoke break…

i find this interesting as the sedentary yet active personality describes myself as well. snowboard regularly and p90x 4 times a week (not enough) yet on the couch or at a desk at least 10 hours a day.

our house isn’t big enough to have an exercise room such as the author describes.

Our bodies weren’t designed for repetition, be it sitting or standing.

Every little bit helps, sure, and if you keep at it I suppose you’ll gradually become accustomed to it and maybe you won’t be as lazy about regular exercise – this is a good thing. But as a means to healthy ends by itself, doing regular random small exercise I don’t think will do much.

I am quite sedentary myself. I recently played a dancing game on a friend’s Xbox 360 Kinect (the only other time I ever really danced was when I met my girlfriend! I guess it works…) After figuring out the moves, I switched it to “workout mode” because I was working up a bit of a sweat and was curious how much exercise I was actually accomplishing. After telling it how much I weigh, according to the game, doing a 1:30-2:00 song with a moderately intense full-body dance routine burns 10-12 calories. Now, I don’t mean to imply that burning calories is the only benefit – I’m sure it helps your aerobic health, improves your balance, etc.

But, what that told me is that doing short, random exercise isn’t really going to cut it. You’ll need to do longer workout sessions, either daily or several times a week, as is common (I’ll add that doing longer sessions with the game, or just dancing in general, I think is a great idea – regular exercise is too boring for many people). For your random exercise/time to think, I think a walk in the fresh air is a better idea.

Also, who really works at a job where you’re sitting all the time without a break? I’m up and down to the bathroom, photocopy room, to my colleague’s offices to discuss various projects, to the mail room, to various coffee shops and restaurants at lunch time etc.

Granted, if you’re a creative professional you might have more leeway but you would still get funny looks if you just got up and walked around the office ponderously. Taking these breaks not only gets you away from sitting at a computer, it also lets your mind take a break and do some of those weird “deep process” things where a lot of people work through problems and come up with interesting solutions.

Here’s a potential mod that might be less obtrusive and get some of the same benefits: P-ups. Whenever you go to the bathroom, do some smallish set number of pushups/squats whatever. Pros: Makes the break you’re taking already a little more physically stimulating without interrupting your concentration. Less memory-burden because it’s associated with a “task” you’re doing already. Cons: the associating is mildly disgusting. You need the right bathroom setup.

Also, if you work in an environment where you can take a mini exercise break whenever you want (a requirement for any of these) you might as well avail yourself of a more interesting exercise than mere pusups/squats/etc. Like swinging around a sledgehammer with a sweater wrapped around it (see shovelglove.com)

I am considering taking up smoking again, “for my health”…

Overall this was much less effective (in terms of overall strength) than my previous year of visiting a personal trainer 3 times/week.

One man’s experience … YMMV.

You should read “The 4-hour-body” of Timothy Ferris :)

Ciao,
Marc