You may be asking yourself, what’s with the strange headline, but trust me I do have an very good explanation…
I used to believe that exercising for 3-5 days a week was plenty to get into peak shape (along with a proper nutrition plan of course).
However, after working with clients now for over 20 years I’ve come to realize that the ones that got the very best results were the ones who did just a little bit more.
No, they didn’t add in extra workouts or do more cardio…
What they did was adopt “random acts of fitness.”
“Random acts of fitness” is what I call taking the stairs instead of the elevator and opting for a longer walk with your dog rather than taking the short route.
Again, I used to feel that these were insignificant since each one only burns an extra 20-50 calories…
BUT, then I came to realize it’s not any ONE of these acts that makes that big a difference, but rather the cumulative effect.
If you take the stairs 3x a day, park further away from your office or shopping destination, and go for a walk after lunch you’re now compounding your fat loss efforts, and therefore, compounding your fat loss results.
Even still, I thought to myself, all of these activities alone weren’t enough to burn an extra pound a week. So I kept racking my brain to figure out what it was that was allowing these more active clients to burn 2-3x the fat of just ordinary exercisers.
Then it hit me…
I realized that those who were committing random acts of fitness were more likely to have health, fitness, and weight loss on their mind throughout the day. This meant they were more likely to make better nutritional choices as well.
After all you wouldn’t want to waste all your “extra acts of fitness” outside of the gym by making poor food choices…
It was brilliant. Simple, but brilliant.
Even for those who struggle with eating ate better by just remembering to stand, walk, and take the stairs whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Why would this help so much?
Because nobody likes to have their time wasted – Nobody!
And that means if you commit yourself to your typical weekly workouts (even just 3x per week), and then add in 3-5 random acts of fitness throughout each day you’re not going to think thrice about having those afternoon sweets.
If you’ve been struggling to take your fat loss, health, or better eating habits to the next level, I highly recommend you try committing your own random acts of fitness.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
* Take the stairs WHENEVER possible
* Take a 20 minute walk after lunch
* Stretch for 5-10 minutes when you wake up
* Find excuses at work to get up from your desk and take a walk
* Park as far away as possible when going shopping
* Walk your dog (or someone else’s) for 5 minutes extra – they’ll appreciate it too!
* Play and run around with your kids a little more than you would
* Take a 20 minute walk after dinner
* Stretch or foam roll before bed
Of course, those are just a few examples to get started and feel free to incorporate any of your own as well.
Remember, there are always those who will take my advice and dive in head-first and commit 5 or more acts tomorrow. However, if you’re someone who is slower to pull the trigger don’t worry – you can always start with just ONE act you know you can incorporate and then build from there.
The biggest take away is that you want to make these extra movements throughout the day stick. After all, results come from accumulation, not just testing the waters for a few days to see if it works.
I hope you enjoyed the article and commit to making random acts of fitness a part of your weight loss and new healthy lifestyle!
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