The Interrupted Workout
The other day a dear friend of mine commented that she’s no longer able to carve out a good chunk of time to workout. She’s a single mom to an almost 2 year old. She works three jobs. She owns a home. The women’s got a lot on her plate.
She knows that exercise makes the rest of her life better, emotionally and physically, but she doesn’t know how to possible make time to go to the gym.
I told her she was looking for an uninterrupted block of time to get her exercise in. Maybe she needed to start doing interrupted workouts.
A set of kitchen curls.
A few dining room dips.
Some living room lunges.
{just ignore the raggy shirt and slippers. or don’t. that’s the real me afterall, i like clothes that have been lived in, they’re more comfortable. :)}
Too often we (myself included) get caught up in the idea that exercise needs to be organized and uninterrupted. The truth is that any movement is good movement!
I love a sweaty, hard, full body Tabata workout to fulfill my strength training goals but sometimes it just doesn’t happen. Sometimes I’m really tired or stuck at work or really need to clean the house. When this happens I do what I can; a set of push ups-sweep the stairs-a plank or two-put in the laundry-bicep curls-clean the toilet. By the end of the hour the house is clean and my muscles are worked!
The key to the interrupted workout is to make sure that your muscles are warm and ready, don’t go from 0-60 and back again. I always start with push ups on my knees because they warm up my entire upper body. Following push ups is a few shoulder and arm circles and swings, basically just moving my arms and shoulders through their full range of motion.
My friend seemed keen to the idea of getting it where she could (no! not like that!) and last night I got a text from her that read “Dropping and doing two rounds of 10 push ups–you?”. No doubt she was wiped out from her day and her son was climbing all over her during the push ups but she knew that a quick minute or two of exercise would only make things better.
Do you do interrupted workouts? What’s your favorite exercise to throw in with the rest of your day?
I’m off to do the dishes and some dips!
