A pet friend is the most entertaining cardio workout!

Fitness Minutes

As a law student I spent a majority of my day sitting.  Sitting in class 4 hours a day, sitting and studying another 4 to 6 hours a day and finally sitting to relax.  I am not spending that same amount of time sitting at the computer applying to jobs and tweaking my resume.  And when the day comes that someone decides I am worthy of a paycheck I will probably start getting paid to sit a majority of the day.

Living a healthy lifestyle means fitting in your fitness whenever you can!  Even when I don’t have time to fit in a full workout (usually about 45 mins to an hour for me) I find time to get in some fitness minutes.

I also don’t have a gym membership because being a recent-unemployed-student loan graduate means I live cheaper than a college freshman.

Here are the ways a busy law student, graduate, or busy anyone can add fitness minutes to your day:

• WALK! Walk everywhere you can!  Park farther away, take yourself or you dog around the block, run your errands on foot if you can, walk on your lunch break.  All those extra steps add up.

• TAKE THE STAIRS. This is such an easy way to fit in cardio and toning!  Stairs burn calories and do great things for the glutes! Malls, courthouses, office buildings, apartments…they all have a stair case.  Use it.

• HIT THE FLOOR. Use your TV time as toning time.  Hit the floor and do crunches, push-ups, or leg lifts on commercial breaks.  Remember every little bit helps!

• HIT PLAY. I have a few workout dvds and downloaded videos that are anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes long.  Finding 10 extra minutes in the morning isn’t that hard, so I occasionally pop in a 10 min Ab or 10 min Pilates dvd and get in some core work. The 30 day Shred is also an intense workout that only takes 20 minutes to get in your cardio and weights.

• FIT IT IN. So what if I only have 15 minutes to spare in the morning.  I hop on the treadmill (or outside) and do intervals to get my heart pumping.    Any fitness minutes are better than no fitness minutes.  [Remember getting in three 10 min bursts of fitness = 30 minute workout]

• MAKE IT WORK. Because I don’t have access to a full gym, I have bought a few essentials to make a mini-home gym.  Having a set of dumb bells and stability ball gives you endless workout options.  Anytime I want to do some strength training I just grab my weights and can use the ball doubles as core building and chest press base.  I recommend buying a set of adjustable dumb bells so that you can easily vary your weight and exercises.

• JUST DO IT. As Nike slogan goes, just do it.  Take a few minutes and be active.  You will feel better!

My own little home gym:  Adjustable dumb bells, stability ball, 5 pound medicine ball, and mat.

Adjustable dumb bells.  Each dumb bell adjusts from 2.5 lbs to 12.5 lbs.  My husband owns a huge set with much heavier weights.