Any excuse for a kitchen disco.

Some ideas for fitting exercise into the busiest of days.

Often when we are feeling drained it is in our culture to ‘push through’ and keep going. Being busy is almost seen to be a badge of honour and we often wait to get sick to reflect.

This can mean that ‘self-care’ is neglected as it can be deemed to be another ‘thing to do’.

Dr Kelly McGonigal is health psychologist and she advocates how any movement can help to release stress. Kelly says it “teaches the brain to tune into joy and optimism more readily”. Obviously we all know about the dopamine release we get through movement.

The good news is it doesn’t always have to entail changing into our ‘active wear’ or even leaving the house.

‘Microdosing’ is term used to refer to taking small amounts of time, from 30 seconds to 10 minutes to stop, breath and move.

Author of ‘Breath’, James Nestor explains how we can stimulate our parasympathetic nervous system, (which helps to calm our bodies and minds down) simply by taking a few slow breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth.

So whether working from home, looking after young children or performing mundane household chores, try to create pockets of ‘habit microdosing’.

Here is an example;

-Whilst the kettle is boiling, put a hand on your heart and slow your breath down. Breath in through your nose for 4, hold it for 6 and breath out of mouth for 8.

Now add some microdosing movement in.

Physican and author, Dr Chaterjee, recommends if working from home or busy in the kitchen, to take 5 minutes to exercise.

For example:

Plant your 2 feet on the ground, then stretch your hands over your head and breath in, bending to one side and breath out, repeat on the other side.
5 squats/alternate lunges.
-5 press-ups against the kitchen counter.

I personally love doing any of these on those particularly busy days, when time is limited.

Also if you have physical disabilities, you can do some movement from a chair, e.g, using cans of food as weights for your arms. Or simply tense and then release muscles.

If non of the above is for you, simply get the tunes on and dance.

Kitchen disco anyone?? Whatever you do move and try to view exercise as a chance to reset, rather than another chore to tick off.

See more posts