Unintentional exercise?

October 7, 2006 2:07 AM

Help me exercise accidentally.

I find exercise for exercise’s sake boring. It feels unproductive to me. I know it’s necessary for my health. Being car-less, I do get a lot of walking in. I’m going to buy a bicycle when the dibs are in tune. I live in an area of extreme drought and am bucketing my gray water which I guess is helping to build muscle tone in my arms, as does other gardening tasks. What other accidental (and free) exercise can you suggest?

Bonus points: I have no money having sacrificed an income to study full time (thank you metafilter) AND I’m an introvert so team sports etc hold no appeal to me. I rarely watch television and would prefer to be industrious, rather than entertained.

Useful but not exactly what i need threads I found include:
How do I make myself LOVE exercise?
equipment-free workouts

posted by b33j to health & fitness (26 comments total)

Bruce Lee's old cliche was always taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Yet another is that bedroom sports can get a boost from strenuous positions.
posted by Manjusri at 3:02 AM on October 7, 2006

I find that if you really get into sweeping and mopping that you can get in some good upper body exercise. Not exactly pumping iron level of exercise, but I find it a bit more interesting. And industrious.
posted by Mister Cheese at 3:26 AM on October 7, 2006

I also try to encourage my tendency to think on my feet, and pace while I do my deep thinking.
posted by Manjusri at 3:36 AM on October 7, 2006

I often find myself trying to make less trips; from the car with shopping, though the house with food/drinks, up/down getting ready to go out. I suggest you do the oposite.
posted by matholio at 4:09 AM on October 7, 2006

In the old days the scribes often didn't sit down to read or write. My simple solution is to vary working at a desk while sitting in a chair, with working at a higher raised desk, standing up.

Makes it a lot easier to think on your feet as well.
posted by ijsbrand at 4:20 AM on October 7, 2006

It think LifeHaker.com had something on sitting vs standing.
iirc StandingCalories=SittingCalories*1.4
posted by matholio at 4:31 AM on October 7, 2006

My partner volunteered to help in a local library's used book store. This means she spends a couple hours 4-6 times a week lifing boxes filled with books. She hates excercise for the sake of exercise, to, and started there in order to increase her upper body strength.
posted by QIbHom at 4:46 AM on October 7, 2006

These are all best answers. Great stuff. Thanks!
posted by b33j at 5:09 AM on October 7, 2006

You could get ankle weights, so that all of your incidental walking will be a little bit more work for your body to do. You can combine that with other things, like wearing ankle weights while sweeping or mopping or while standing at your desk or while unloading groceries or library books.
posted by srah at 5:17 AM on October 7, 2006

Chop wood?
posted by vanoakenfold at 5:19 AM on October 7, 2006

Visit public parks for leisure. Especially busy ones. The people watching can be fun and stimulating and relaxing as you stroll around. If you find a tall swing - do it - it feels good and works stomach muscles a little. Play on the equipment - it's good for your coordination, balance.

Store things you use daily on the higher shelves in your house so you have to stretch up with your entire body to get it down.
posted by dog food sugar at 5:50 AM on October 7, 2006

Something involving sawing (wood, trees).

Rowing - maybe kayaking? I think the whitewater kind might be more active than the touring-a-placid-lake kind.

Biking to [wherever you need to go that doesn't require interstate travel].
posted by amtho at 6:54 AM on October 7, 2006

Just bike everywhere.
posted by BobbyDigital at 7:11 AM on October 7, 2006

I'd suggest buying that bike as soon as you possibly can. It will increase the range of things you can do by muscle power, meaning you can run all sorts of errands on it. Shlepping a week's worth of groceries on a bike is definitely exercise.

You could look into getting a sport utility bike, which is designed to haul stuff around without a trailer. I have no experience with them myself, but they look like a good idea. I'm sure more knowledgeable cyclists could give you good advice here, but if you get a bike that makes it convenient to shlep stuff, you're more likely to use it for shlepping.
posted by Quietgal at 7:14 AM on October 7, 2006

Summer is coming, right? Generally, rearrange the recreational parts of your life around walking (or biking) to and from interesting places. You may sit on your bum somewhere all evening, but you walk (or bike) there and back. That means getting out the map and thinking of walkable interesting destinations. Even if you live too far out in the suburbs to walk into the city most evenings, here must be places near you worth hanging about in. And on a nice Saturday or Sunday (summer is coming, right?), make the walk to Brisbane and back? Is that too far?
posted by pracowity at 7:30 AM on October 7, 2006

Try rock climbing or bouldering. If you like puzzles you will get into it in spite of the exercise.
posted by jet_silver at 8:05 AM on October 7, 2006

I used to live in cities where I had to walk everywhere. When I lived in London, my mom noted how healthy I looked due to the walking.

Now that I'm back in the suburbs with a car, I like to park in the farthest space possible at work, school, the shops. Even though it may not be terribly far, it encourages a bit of walking everyday.
posted by wilde at 9:15 AM on October 7, 2006

You could get ankle weights, so that all of your incidental walking will be a little bit more work for your body to do. You can combine that with other things, like wearing ankle weights while sweeping or mopping or while standing at your desk or while unloading groceries or library books.

Don't do this. It is not going to cause you to burn a lot of calories and the unnatural stress it puts on your joints can cause injury.
Perhaps gardening/landscaping, if you have a yard or garden you can work in. The squatting, carrying dirt, digging, etc, are all pretty decent strength-building exercises.
posted by ch1x0r at 10:02 AM on October 7, 2006

Productive?

Sombody said chopping wood. But then you got burn the wood (or sell it).

Digging a garden a pond.

Volunteer for the parks department when they need people to maintain trails... that is AWESOME.

Yeah I second the NO ankle wieghts. BAD. Unless your doing specific kinds of controlled movement. If you want to get more out walking put a gallon jug or two of watter in your back-pack.

Howzabout build a an Egyptian pyramid out of cinder blocks. If you make one, say one tenth the scale of the Great Pyramid of Giza, it will take till your about 77. The you have a handy tomb from which to enter the after life. No cheating and getting Hebrew slaves to it!
posted by tkchrist at 10:14 AM on October 7, 2006

If you have a chore to do, e.g. dusting, mopping, whatever, turn on some upbeat music. You might find yourself dancing a little bit.

Any active toddlers you're related to or can spend some time with? "Playing" soccer or basketball with the little 3-year-old next door never feels like exercise to me, and we get quite active!
posted by IndigoRain at 10:38 AM on October 7, 2006

Do you have any bad habits you'd like to break? Say smoking or sweets or between-meal snacking? You might try exercise as aversion therapy.

I wanted to cut back on (and eventually quit) smoking. So I decided to only have a cigarette every 2 hours. Everytime I had the urge to smoke outside that timeframe I dropped down and did 25 crunches or 25 pushups. I don't like crunches or pushups. But it gave a purpose to exercise and made it something other than boring.
posted by w_boodle at 10:57 AM on October 7, 2006

Let's see: you're in introvert in need of exercise, little or no income.

Can you spare enough time for a sideline job such as dog-walking or toddler-minding? (The more you can handle at once, and the more active the "breed," the better.)
posted by rob511 at 2:20 PM on October 7, 2006

Thank you all again for your suggestions - very helpful.
posted by b33j at 2:37 PM on October 7, 2006

Go Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. The best workout you'll get.
posted by gramcracker at 3:43 PM on October 7, 2006

This week I began working at a stand-up desk. It is great. I can't testify to its specific physical advantages, but I imagine there are some. This style of working is natural to me since I worked at drafting boards in architectural offices for many years before the advent of computerized drafting. When CAD systems came in I quit. Then, as a writer and editor, I sat at a desk for many years. Now I'm back to standing--working with a keyboard and monitor--and highly recommend it.
posted by partner at 5:05 PM on October 7, 2006

Yard work/errands for elderly neighbors.
posted by Morrigan at 10:24 AM on October 10, 2006