Making Fitness Simple in the Morning

Time for a quick summary, because just a few short paragraphs from now it’s going to be time to put all this stuff to work.

We’ve seen that a balanced fitness program requires three basic elements:
A cardiovascular or aerobic component for weight control and the health of the circulatory system.
A strength component for maintaining muscle mass and thus an active weight controlling metabolism.

Flexibility maneuvers for keeping limber and pain-free enough to want to be active in the first place.
And yes, l know. Despite all we’ve been saying about how easy it can be, you’re still not convinced that you’re going to be able to find the time. How, simply by using your imagination, are you going to lengthen your day by the 30 minutes these fitness endeavors require?

l’ll tell you how. You’re going to do as all great running backs in the game of football do: You’re going to learn to look for openings. Any openings. Five minutes here. Ten minutes there. It can all add up regardless of intensity or duration, remember, because the new research shows that we can get our fitness in “nibbles” rather than just those long and hard-to-swallow “feasts” of old.

So relax, pay attention, and feel free to come up with some ideas of your own. Your goal each day should be to “consume” at least 20 minutes of cardiovascular activity, 5 to 10 minutes of strength-building, and 5 to l0 minutes of stretching. That might sound like a lot, but it needn’t feel like a lot if you can just learn to do what you can when you can.

The only limit to what you can achieve with this system is - as l’ve said before - your imagination.

Doing aerobic activity usually means that you can’t do any other activity at the same time. That’s one reason many of us don’t do it more often. But strength and flexibility exercises can be squeezed in while you’re doing other things, and that’s where your imagination must be especially active.

So let’s get creative, and let’s start with your most frenetic time of all: the morning, when, if you’re like most hard-working Americans, you barely have time to butter your toast. In the next article, we’ll look at how to squeeze similar fit-bits into your noon and evening hours, but for now let’s start with the morning. If you can squeeze fitness into this time, the rest should be easy.

We all have different feelings about the morning: Some of us love it, others of us just do what we can to get through it. Therefore, l’m offering many alternatives for your morning workout.

But even if you’re about as much of a morning person as Dracula, take heart: You can mix and match your exercise alternatives to create an approach that suits you and that fits into your schedule. No exercise program works if you don’t do it, so choosing an activity that you really enjoy and that conforms to your time limitations is very important.

Do you cringe at the first glimpse of sunlight when you fetch the morning paper from the front stoop? Then by all means pick indoor exercises that get your blood circulating before you open that door. Are you energized by the smell of fresh air? Then get outside right away and walk, jog, run, bike, or skate before your shower.

Whatever it is that gets your motor running, do it — and it will jumpstart you for the day ahead.
Read the next article to find out how to maximize your morning time to exercise.