8 easy ways to be more active as part of your daily life

Staying active is the secret to leading a healthy and happy life. Many of us spend long hours sitting in the office or in front of the TV. This can have a terrible impact on your health unless you spend part of your day exercising or moving around. Whatever your age, gender and profession, everyone must stay active in order to remain healthy.

But don’t worry - being active doesn’t necessarily mean hard hours at the gym every day. There are easy ways to be active that you can integrate into your daily life. 

Walking
Walking is one of the best ways to stay active. It’s fantastic exercise, while being low impact and doesn’t need any special equipment. All you need to do is head to your local park, or even around the block. If you get lonely walking alone, you can rope in a friend or family member to walk with you. This will help them to stay active too, not to mention motivate you to walk regularly!

You can also try to incorporate walking into your daily routine. Walk home from work if that’s feasible or walk to the shops instead of driving or taking the bus. Professional athletes like the Indian cricket team also go walking or jogging to keep their body fit. Walking is a basic form of exercise that is suitable for people of every age and fitness level. 

Take the stairs
You can also take the stairs instead of using the lift at the office, or public places like shopping centers. You can burn a lot of calories by taking the stairs. It will help you to burn fat, tone up your legs, and lose weight as it is an intense exercise that increases your heart rate. You can burn a lot of calories just by taking the stairs whenever you can. So, whenever you have to go to an upper floor, take the stairs instead of the lift, as an easy way to stay active. 

Use a bicycle 
Instead of heading to work or doing your errands by car, you can go green and take a bicycle instead. It is not only environmentally friendly, but will also help you to keep fit. Wherever possible, use your bicycle instead of other forms of transportation, and get around while getting fit at the same time! 

Clean your home
Did you know that you can burn up to 200 calories every hour just by cleaning? There are many things you can do in the house that not only help you keep your home sparklingly clean, but also help you keep active. Whether sweeping, vacuuming, washing dishes or doing your laundry, you’ll be burning calories.

Spend time with your pets
Spending time with your furry friends is not only fun and rewarding, but it also helps you to stay active. Take your pet for a walk or play with them, and you’ll be so busy enjoying spending time with your pet that you won’t even notice that you’re exercising!

Use a treadmill or elliptical
Want to work out but don’t want the expense or health risk of going to the gym? Buying home gym equipment like treadmills or elliptical trainers is an affordable and easy alternative to going to the gym. The good thing about this equipment is that you can watch TV or listen to your favorite music while working out, avoiding boredom and keeping you motivated.

Use a standing desk
Instead of sitting all the time in the office, use a standing desk if it all possible. This way you can be more active by standing while working. Standing uses more muscles work than sitting, so you keep muscles toned and burn extra calories. If a standing desk is not an option, then take short standing breaks. That way your muscles will be working more.

Do volunteer work
Giving back by volunteering in your local community is not only very rewarding, but it can help you to stay active. Whether helping out at a soup kitchen or cleaning up trash, you’ll be moving around and getting gentle exercise. So why not help the community and improve your health at the same time?

Ready to get active?
Technology has made our lives easy, meaning we can get anything we want with the click of a button. Unfortunately, this also means that our lifestyles have become very sedentary, and most of us don’t get enough activity as part of our daily lives.

Despite all the advantages of technology, we must not forget that our body needs to work as well. If a machine stays idle for a long time, it won’t work anymore. Similarly, if you’re idle for most of the day, your muscles and joints won’t work properly, so it’s critically important to stay active to keep your body in top condition.