Working Work Outs into Your Daily Routine

Every day the world seems to grow smaller. At the same time as it shrinks, it also seems to speed up. Life in the modern world runs very fast, and we often find ourselves struggling to keep up. With so much to do and so little time, it is only natural that we exhaust our bodies trying to keep pace with the impossible demands of life in the twenty first century world. As a collective, we may be managing quite well to keep up with this demanding speed of things, but the toll we pay often comes in the form of physical collapse. Our bodies are exceptional machines, but being physical entities, they are ultimately bound by the rules of the physical world. As such, not only do our soaring minds and aspirations run them ragged, they can sometimes leave them behind in the dust.

The stresses of the modern grind build up constantly, with barely any breaks in between. Our daily routine is a juggling act between too many demands and not enough hands to be able to fulfill them. Without the eight arms of a Hindu deity, how is any ordinary mortal to keep up? And so we build machines, and delegate as much of the business of living as possible to them. Our cars run ever speedier, our washing machines wash faster, and dry too, and our food comes in little pre prepared packages that our microwaves heat for us. Not only do we end up spending more time interacting with machines than is entirely healthy, we do it sitting down. Machines are highly disposable today, and we are encouraged to replace them with a newer, upgraded model as often as we can afford to. Which means we lose the habit of maintaining and repairing these machines that surround us. Another machine that very often goes neglected is the human body.

A lot of the time, we rely on our bodies without giving it a second thought. Aches and pains are minor discomforts that are ignored until they become inconvenient enough to disrupt our lives. By the time ill-health or some minor malfunction becomes big enough to require medical attention, it is often too late to do anything but spend the rest of our lives applying periodic patches. At which point we can no longer expect our body to ever go back to functioning as efficiently as it once did. Any faulty part puts a strain on the whole system, and the result is an overall slowdown in functioning. It is imperative then, to prevent our bodies from getting to that point. This is easily done through regular maintenance, one form of which is exercise.

The most common complaint is that there is simply no time in your schedule to fit in that essential work out. Yes, you know it is important, you know your body needs it, and you know it will make you feel better, but impossible is impossible and there is nothing you can do. Well, there is always something to be done. Grabbing exercise on the go is just as much a possibility as a takeaway meal if you do not have time for a sit down lunch. There are always a spare ten minutes here and there in one's day, and multitasking has already become a way of life. The simplest solution can often be little substitutions and adjustments to make space in the tight fit of your daily schedule. Walking as a substitute to riding a vehicle, climbing the stairs as a substitute to taking the elevator, and eating a fruit or a salad as a substitute to your usual snack are always simple ways to a healthier life.

If your job involves sitting down at a desk for long periods of time, or if you have a long commute to work, there are exercises you can do sitting down. Breathing exercises can be a great way to break the monotony, distress your system and end up feeling more refreshed and alert in ten minutes. There are many different types of breathing exercises, with their own cycles and attendant logic, but even something as simple as concentrating on regulating your breathing and taking deep breaths for a few minutes can leave you dramatically refreshed. Eye exercises, exercises for the facial muscles, neck and upper body stretches are just a few of the many options for exercising while sitting down. It is a very efficient way to make use of your commuting time, or take a ten minute break at work that will actually leave you ready to perform more efficiently.

Making every moment count is the way to get the most out of life, and squeezing every second for all that it is worth may be the only way to fit all you need to do into your day. But squeezing some time in there to take care of your body can give you a longer life.


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