How do you move your behind?

I was thinking about this today on my walk around the block at the station. You see, (almost) every work day I arrive at my station in Amsterdam and I walk a kilometer around the block(s) because I have time to kill. I do this regardless of weather or what I’m carrying with me . I look at it in general as an opportunity to move my arse. As I was walking I started thinking about all the other ways we could move our arses just a bit more.

1) you know how “they” say to park further away at the parking lot instead of close to the door of the shop or building you need to be at? Well how about this instead? Park a block away or at the other end of the strip mall. Think you can’t because of various reasons? Think again. Even if you will have a ton of bags or will have to wheel your shopping cart back, even better! Your just adding steps to your daily total.

2) seriously, take the stairs. If you don’t need the lift, don’t take it. If you work on the 42nd floor of a building in NYC then ok, but actually why not use part of the stairwell at least to your advantage? Same for escalators. How hard is it for us to just walk up the stairs? At least WALK the escalator if you have to take it.

3) if you commute by public transport, get off the bus a stop or two early, or on the way home.

4) join in the mall walkers if the weather is crap. Think they are lame? Wrong! They are moving their arses!

5) live in a bike friendly city? NYC has just introduced Citibikes. What a great way to get to where you need to go and get in some activity . Here in the Netherlands a yearly subscription costs next to nothing and bikes can be rented for as little as €3,50 a day. If you can’t get rental/commuter bikes, why not consider biking to work anyway. Or even just to the supermarket. Or the post office. There is no need to get in your car for every single place you need to go. Try it. Honestly you might like it.

6) Don’t have time? Think about this – how much TV do you watch a week? You have time. You could at least do planks or situps during commercials. I am actually amazed at how much television people watch and then claim they don’t have enough time for a walk around the block or to go to the gym. Priorities! Sure you like your favorite show but if it would give you more opportunities to move your butt, then you can probably live without it.

7) take a break at work and do wall pushups in the bathroom. Really. I had a friend who used to do this all the time. So you are away 10 minutes? Who isn’t occasionally?

8) Get a jump rope and go out at lunch and jump for 10 minutes. I have a rope that displays even how many jumps and calories I burned. It’s really cool. That reminds me to put it in my gym bag to take with me to the office.

9) Utilise your lunch break for something besides jumping in your car and going to get something to eat. How about bringing your lunch from home, and using the time to move? I remember a long time ago I worked at a distribution center and I used to bring my rollerblades with me. I’d have a quick sandwich and then go skate outside for a half an hour. Great fun, nice break and good to release stress!

If you worry about getting sweaty or stinky then all you have to do is put a few things in your bag – some fresh wipes and some deodorant. Some of us are lucky enough to have showers at work and some not, but unless you are running 10K at lunch I honestly don’t think you will have a huge issue.

Do you have some sneaky ways to get movement in? How do you make it work for you to take care of yourself every day?