Exercising While Watching Television

Often leisure television time is spent lounging on the couch or laying in bed enjoying the latest episode of a favorite show, sporting event, or a new movie that appears interesting. It can be truly relaxing having a bit of time to yourself to be entertained and who can blame you especially at the end of a long day.



However if you have been finding it difficult to incorporate a regular workout routine into your weekly schedule, one option you should consider is exercising while watching television. This is an excellent opportunity to so some semi-stationary calisthenics and strength building exercises that can really kick-start your commitment to workout regularly and develop a healthy life.

You will find that if you simply stick with consistently exercising while watching television, your strength and endurance will increase dramatically after a month or two.

Best yet, many of the exercises listed below can be done without taking your eyes off the television screen. In other words, you will be able to workout while watching your show figuratively killing two birds with one stone.

If you don't want to actually workout while the program is on, an option you have is to do the exercises when there's a lull in the program such as during commercials or halftime/timeouts if it's a sporting event. Commercials generally last anywhere from 3-5 minutes so if you are watching an hour-long show, there may be 5-6 blocks of time where you will be able to get some exercise done. By the end of the hour, you may have completed 15-20 minutes of exercise right there in front of your television while at the same time enjoying a show.

Here is a list of exercises you can begin with. Just be sure to lightly stretch before working out and not overdo it especially if you haven't used those particular muscles in a very long time. Remember, you want this exercise routine to become a regular occurrence, not just a once-a-month occasion. Develop the habit and stick with it regularly and you will find yourself becoming stronger and more committed to the process of getting into shape.

Exercise List

Pushups, situps, squats, lunges, jumping jacks, running in place, high knees, butt kicks, bridges, cobras, supermans, planking, mountain climbers, and burpees are just some of the many exercises you can do indoors in front of the television without needing much room around you.

Once you learn how to do these exercises, you can put together a number of different ones to do right there in your living room. Here is an example of a possible exercising while watching television routine you can try out when you are ready.

15 Jumping Jacks
10 Squats
10 Pushups
20 Mountain Climbers
15 Jumping Jacks
10 Lunges on each leg
10 Pushups
20 Mountain Climbers
30 Situps
10 Burpees

If you do not know how to properly perform these exercises, or if you've never even heard of them before, you can easily find out how do to them in the correct manner after a simple Internet or YouTube search.

Once you know how to do all these exercises, you will be able to workout literally wherever you want. To top it off, once you become proficient at them, you can increase the difficulty level by varying the exercise.

For instance once you can do push ups without much straining, you can start doing variations such as spiderman or leg lift push ups. These will really test your strength!

For the spiderman push ups, imagine going down into a traditional push up but at the same time bringing in one of your legs in an attempt to touch the same-sided elbow, and as you push back up you return the leg to the normal starting point. The next push up you switch and bring the other leg in. The entire time maintaining proper, straight push up posture.

For leg lift push ups, before starting a push up you lift one of your legs straight up behind you in the air, and then do a push up keeping that leg in the air. The next push up you can switch to your other leg.

Those are just two examples of taking the basic exercise of a push up to the next level. But again, do not attempt these advanced exercises until you have developed the strength needed to do them comfortably. For push ups, wait until you can do 20-30 without much difficulty to try the spiderman or left lift push ups.

Remember, exercise not only helps strengthen the body but it also adds to your motivation to eat in a healthy manner which is truly the key to weight loss success. The more often you put exercise and nutrition as a priority of each day, the quicker you will get in the shape you want to be in.

Don't just dream about being in great shape, get out there and do it and one way is by exercising while watching television.

Gregory L. Gomez, a LAUSD teacher who's also on journey to develop a healthy life in an effort to lose weight and get in shape. Follow his progress on http://HealthyChoicesInLife.com as he strives to lose nearly 100 pounds by eating healthy and maintaining a consistent exercise routine. Get a FREE monthly Healthy Choices Newsletter along with a Healthy Eating Ebook just for stopping by at http://healthychoicesinlife.com/healthy-eating.

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