6 great ways to get "accidental exercise"

Clearly, I'm a big advocate of high-intensity training sessions to improve strength, conditioning, overall health and appearance. If I had my druthers, this wouldn't be necessary because I'd be living a consistently active lifestyle like generations before us. But sadly, most of us these days are confined to 8-10 hours a day at a desk, so we're not naturally in good shape from hunting, gathering, farming and building our own shelters.

But we CAN lead more active lifestyles that will contribute to our overall fitness almost by accident. Starting today, try the following 6 no-brainer ways of getting accidental exercise. (These are really, really convenient...I'm not even going the whole "bike to work instead of driving" route...)

1. Whenever it's an option, take the stairs rather than the elevator (yes, you've heard this a million times, but I bet you don't do it)
   
2. Rather than wasting time, gas and patience looking for the closes possible parking spot, find the one farthest away and WALK (yes, you've heard this a million...well, you know)
   
3. Stand up! Standing up burns one more calorie per minute than sitting. You can go extreme with this like I have and use a standing desk rather than a typical office desk / chair set up. I was having neck pain from all the sitting (which, during the course of the day invariably became slouching...). I'm only a few days into this experiment, but the neck pain is gone and I'm finding myself more energized, focused and productive. Oh, yeah, and I'm burning 500 or so more calories at my desk. I don't expect everyone to go this route, but get out of the damn chair more!
   
4. If you're just doing a quick trip to the grocery story, carry a basket rather than pushing a carriage
5. Instead of loading up on bags when carrying in groceries, take two at a time and do more trips
6. When your kids want to be held, use them as your resistance to do curls, upright rows, swings, presses. You're getting some exercise and they'll have a blast (in fact, from my experience, you'll have a hard time getting them to let you stop!)

OK, I really wanted this post to be SEVEN ways, but a beautiful day calls, so leave a comment with your favorite to round out the list!

No excuses,

Jesse