Is the only workout you are getting from walking from the exam room to the treatment room?  That is not exercise, check your Fitbit and see.

Fitness is important for a productive and happy person – you know it, you want to do it, but you don’t have the time? Are you stuck between deciding whether to spend another hour at work take the Zumba class you have been eyeing? Well, if you want to feel better,  physical strength and fitness have a role to play. When you exercise, you will feel pumped with the increased serotonin in your system and also experience more strength, agility and enthusiasm from that 30 minute exercise each day. Definitely check with your physician before starting any type of exercise regimen.

Here are some ways to pack some fitness into your packed schedule:

-        Go for HIIT! Not much time for a workout? Try High Intensity Interval Training which crunches intense workout into a small time-frame. As many as 20 minutes are enough for a power-packed workout. Regular exercise even helps with better sleep. And HIIT won’t take long!

-        Have a locker at the gym! Don’t waste any time in packing and unpacking the gym bag and rent a locker to keep everything you need there. Every minute counts, doesn’t it? And a locker comes with an added advantage of not needing to break your back (literally) carrying heavy bags.

-        Quickie workouts! Why wait to get on solid hour to work out? If you have 15 minutes, squeeze in a short yoga session, or just do some weights or a quick sprint! Shorter bursts of exercise once or twice a day are good enough to keep you ticking.

-        Walk! Sitting on your bottom will not make any matters better. it will just make your back bad. Try and walk every 30-40 minutes or so. Take the stairs, park farther so you can walk more, get off one stop before to get a walk to work – these are all tricks to walk it up. The circulation gets a boost and so does your mood.

-        Go full body! Instead of focusing one body section like they do in structured workouts at gyms and personal training, go for full body toning and exercising because you are short on time. Go for a swim if you like it, because there is no better full body workout that swimming. You can also try variations of burpees.

-        Dance it up! If the regular workouts bore you and you are facing lack of motivation in doing them, go for a spicier version of workout – any dance-based exercise like Zumba or bellydancing. The dance keeps you entertained and the moves make you fit. Variety is the spice of life.

-        TV fitness! Say yes to watch TV and your favorite shows but not like a couch potato. Make it fitness time. If you have a treadmill at home, place it facing the TV and hop on while you watch your favorite show. Else, in each commercial break do a mini HIIT routine.  

-        Use the desk time! Sitting at the desk can be converted into some fun workouts too! the idea is to steal whatever little time is there right, so go for some stapler curls or shoulder shrugs or even some breathing exercises as they do it in yoga for a calmer and a happier you.