As we draw close to the end of another year, many people had goals and resolutions related to their health that they wanted to achieve this year.  For most people this meant getting more active. However, for many people their exercise programs have taken a back seat to the ever increasing demands of life.

Don’t feel bad if you have slacked on your exercise program this year, almost nobody gets the amount of exercise our bodies really need.

Every day we wake up, get in our cars, drive to work, most of us sit at a desk or work in awkward positions for hours on end, get in our cars, drive home, sit down for dinner, then proceed to rest on the couch and perhaps watch TV or converse with family.

Unfortunately this does not allow much room for exercise unless we take deliberate action to drive to the gym and work out.

But let’s be honest, most of us don’t even have time to do that.  The demands of everyday life take up all of our time and we are left with little time to take care of ourselves.  Unfortunately, this is one of the top reasons we all suffer with pain, usually at one point in our life or another.  Our bodies just are not getting the amount of activity they need.

You see, before the days of desk jobs, people’s daily jobs and activities involved getting active because they did not have the modern conveniences of shopping at a store for food or turning on a machine to clean their clothes.  These are the types of things that used to be done by hand and involved physical activity.

So, we all know that physical activity is important and now we know why no one really does it.  So what’s the solution?

The solution is to incorporate physical activity into your everyday routine.  This requires some creative thinking and maybe some help from your Chiropractor or Physiotherapist, but let me give you a few examples.

One thing to do is a couple of minutes of stretching when you rise from bed and before your lay your head down at night.  Bend over, touch your toes, arch your back, twist from side to side, bend your head from side to side and twist your neck back and forth a few times.  You can even do this kind of thing while making the trek to the coffee machine.  Your can also stretch your arms above your head and reach to the roof.

Another suggestion is to hang a bar from a doorway you walk through all the time and every time you pass under it, hang there for a few seconds, or at least grab the bar and pull up a little bit.  Perhaps you can even work your way up to doing pull ups.  There are a few companies that sell pull up bars for your doorway.

One final suggestion is to stand while watching a TV show and stretch or stand while chatting with your family and stretch.  You might look goofy but this will go a long way to help your joints and muscles stay healthy as you age.

Another suggestion is to park your car as far away as possible, so that where ever you are going, you can at least get a few extra steps in.

Perhaps while carrying your groceries in, you can also use them as weights and do a few bicep curls or should strength exercises.

All of the above are simple suggestions for fitting some simple exercises into your day. I would encourage you to get creative and always look for new ways of working out as you move through your day.

If you need more help incorporating exercise into your daily routine, or you are wondering what exercises you should be doing, then speak to our Chiropractor or Physiotherapist.  We can help you come up with a plan that works for you!