Get Your Exercise with Daily Activities

Just yesterday I walked into a local market and saw a delivery man hauling in a load of wine on a hand truck and one of the employee's comment, "wow, that looks heavy!" His immediate response was, "yes but it's a great workout."

That got me thinking about how many daily or work activities we do that could actually be counted as exercise. There are caloric expenditure charts all over the internet that will tell you (according to your gender and weight) how many calories you'll burn doing a certain activity.

One thing that many people need to understand however is this. Let's say you are a bricklayer and you carry bricks all day long. Of course you are being active and your body has to become efficient at that activity and you will get a certain amount of "exercise" from that effort. The point you need to understand is that the human body will only rise to the level of demand that is being placed on it. In other words, after 6 weeks or so of doing that same activity the human body will develop a sort of "tolerance" for that activity and no longer be challenged. This is why we as personal trainers suggest that you change your workout routine every six to eight weeks or so.

The human body is a marvel of creation, therefore it is very efficient at what it does so it won't overwork itself to accomplish an activity by doing any more than it needs to. It can be compared to an athlete "rising to the level of competition" and no more. Many times an athlete will perform poorly, in comparison to what he or she is capable of, due to the fact the athlete only needed to perform at a certain level to win.

With that said, if you aren't a person who enjoys a formal gym setting and would prefer to get your exercise from daily activities my advice would be to constantly look for something new and different. Below you'll see a list of suggestions and the caloric expenditure for a 200 lb. male. The activity would need to be performed for 30 min.

• If you have a riding mower, try pushing for a while (270)
• If you use a golf cart, try walking 18 holes (200)
• Use the steps, not the elevator (280)
• If you live close to work, walk every now and again (200)
• Dancing (200)
• Mopping the floor (170)
• Raking Leaves (150)
• House Cleaning (180)
• Pulling Weeds (200)
• Cleaning Windows (150)

I know I have many wives of the world excited about the fact I'm suggesting a 200 lb. man do the house work for 30 minutes a day, so men, don't get mad at me. Anyway, as you can see, daily activities can truly be considered exercise if you switch things up and constantly do things differently. Remember, the human body is smart and efficient so keep it guessing and things will happen.