9 Fun Ways to Add More Movement to Your Day

---

Adding more movement to your day is critical if you want to improve your wellness and feel great all the time. But in today’s sedentary world, that’s harder to achieve. Many people would like to get more exercise but don’t feel they can because of work and time constraints. 

Fortunately, this blog is here to help. We run through some fun ways to add more movement to your day so that it feels more life-affirming and less like a chore. By the end of reading this post, you’ll be in a far better position to know what to do to move forward and embark on the ultimate health kick. 

Go On Destination Walks

One option is to prioritize so-called “destination walks.” What these are is pretty obvious: you decide on a destination and walk to it. 

This concept might sound funny, but it comes deeply rooted in the human experience. People have always gone on long walks, whether it’s to find foot, meet up with family after many years, or even go on pilgrimages. 

Today, in the modern world, we don’t do this sort of thing as often as we should. However, it can be fun, especially at weekends, if you go with other people. 

Destination walks should be combined with other lifestyle factors. For example, you could use them to get better sleep or take healthy snacks with you on the way to support your metabolism goals. 

Use Active Gaming

Another concept is active gaming, something that really took off in 2015 with the advent of Pokémon Go. The idea is to combine “gamification” with physical activity, encouraging you to move around more while enjoying fun objectives at the same time. 

VR and Wii Sports are taking this concept to the next level. These encourage movement and make it intrinsically compelling and motivating. People want to move (just like they do in real sports) because they are trying to achieve something (i.e., winning). 

You can still play games while doing regular gym exercises, but it’s more challenging. For example, you could test your VO2 max on the stepper machine or perhaps see how far you can row in 10 minutes. These aren’t quite the same as explicit games, but they can still work. 

Take Micro-Stretch Breaks

Some people like to take micro-stretch breaks. These provide them with time away from work (or whatever they’re doing), allowing them to move a little bit. 

These sorts of breaks are best for people who need to focus on their work and can’t afford to take a break. Micro-breaks where you move around and stretch a little don’t take up much time, and they can also make you more productive once you finally get back in the chair. 

These breaks don’t need to be performative, either. A simple movement is often enough to stretch the body as much as it requires without causing harm. 

Use TV Time Workouts

You could also use TV time workouts, where you follow an instructor through the TV. These workouts can be a lot of fun, and many people find them motivating. 

TV time workouts are usually 30 to 60 minutes and take you through a variety of movements. They can be lost-cost and only require minimal equipment, meaning you don’t need to empty your bank account to get results. 

Furthermore, there’s so much content out there right now that the amount of TV workouts available is extraordinary. You could try something different every day of the year and still not get through everything. 

Do A Chore Burn

You could also go on a hilariously-named “chore burn,” where you use necessary household chores to burn calories and put your body on the right path. 

“Chore burns” are best when your cleaning equipment is difficult to use. For example, you might have a vacuum that is hard to push across the carpet, forcing you to put in the effort. 

“Chore burns” are perhaps one of the best ways to add movement to your day simply because of the way they get you to exercise. You aren’t going to injure or exert yourself, but you are going to enter active zone 2 training, which is critical for a healthy body and mind. 

When you do enough chores, you may find that it also helps with your sleep. You could discover that putting in a couple of hours of work in the middle of the day makes you feel so much better (and sleepier) in the evening. 

Use Some Fun Kit

Another option is to center your movement around a fun kit–objects that make exercise enjoyable. This could be something as inexpensive as a movement rope that you can work out with alone or with friends. You could also use a mountain bike or a kayak, depending on your preferences. 

Once you fall in love with the exercise-related kit, there’s often a whole new world that opens up for you to explore. You suddenly find that the physical activity becomes more interesting than you expected and that there’s a lot that you can do with it. You learn about the industry, fuelling your interest further and encouraging you to engage with others, perhaps groups close to you. 

Play Detective

You could also try a game where you “play detective.” It’s not a conventional wellness strategy, but it could be fun. 

The idea is to use puzzles and clues to find things hidden in the environment by someone else and possibly try to do everything against the clock. This approach might be interesting and lead you to not even realize that you’re exercising or exerting yourself. Ultimately, you want it to feel similar to something like dancing, where the movement itself, along with the music, is fun and doesn’t require any conscious effort. 

Walk The Dog

Yes, it’s clichéd, but walking the dog is another tack you could take. Taking Fido out for a stroll is an excellent way to stretch your legs and enjoy the things that life has to offer. 

It might not be the perfect exercise routine, but it is probably good enough. And if you have a younger dog, you can integrate bouts of more intense exercise into your walks, allowing you to get a more complete workout that meets your wellness goals.

There are, of course, other pet-related activities you could try, though these are less common. For example, you could volunteer at a dog shelter or borrow a friend’s pet and walk them. They’d probably be quite happy if you did that!

Do A Mini Fitness Challenge

Finally, you might want to do a mini fitness challenge. These can be a lot of fun and something you can do socially to prove your prowess. 

Mini fitness challenges are essentially what they sound like: intense bouts of exercise that show what you can do. It doesn’t necessarily have to be competitive, but it is fun to set a benchmark and see if you can beat it. 

Mini fitness challenges could be something like doing five push-ups and ten squats and seeing how you feel afterward. You could measure how long it takes for your heart rate to drop to baseline or how many rounds you can do before feeling exhausted (which can happen quickly). 

Conclusion

So there you have it: some fun ways to add movement into your day. Ultimately, your goal should be to make exercise feel less like a chore and more like a treat. You want it to be your friend, not your enemy.