大象传媒 Scotland - 大象传媒 Scotland - Too busy to fit in regular exercise? Squeeze in these simple moves every time you鈥檙e waiting for the kettle to boil

Too busy to fit in regular exercise? Squeeze in these simple moves every time you鈥檙e waiting for the kettle to boil

26 September 2018

Finding time for regular exercise can be a problem for many of us, but as Professor Nanette Mutrie revealed on Personal Best, even doing simple exercises while you’re waiting for the kettle to boil can make a real difference.

Stand side on, putting your hand on the worktop for balance.
Lift your knee until it’s parallel to the ground.
Lower it down.
Repeat 10 times.

Nanette explained: “This helps the muscles round our hips and because we’re standing nice and straight it helps our posture as well”.

Put your palms and forehead against a wall.
Place your feet about a foot away from the wall.
Keep your body straight and push your arms away until you’re upright.
Let yourself ease back into the wall.
Build up to 10 repetitions

“You can challenge yourself by moving your feet a little bit further away so your arms have to work harder,” said Nanette. “You can use the counter top and vary how far away your feet are. You’ll feel this more in your shoulders biceps and triceps.”

Hold on the worktop.
Pick one foot up off the ground.
Count for 10 – go up to 30 if possible.

If that’s too easy, remove your hand from the worktop and do it without support. You can make it even harder by doing it with your eyes closed. Start by holding on to the worktop and then removing your hand.

According to Nanette, “Taking away the visual cues makes the brain work harder at balancing for us because we’re only then relying on cues coming back from our muscles.”