Fitting exercise around your daily life can be difficult. Balancing family, work and general life, it might be hard to see where you can to fit in your workouts amidst everything else. However not all exercise needs to be intense and strenuous and sometimes the little things go a long way…
…In this article we are focusing on how you can help improve your ‘Active Daily Living’ (ADL). ADL essentially means how much you are moving during the day and is something that all of us should be trying to improve in order to keep a healthy heart, body and mind.
There are a number of ways to 'track' your ADL, the most popular trend has become reaching '10,000 Steps a day'. Whilst there is no physical science behind 10,000 steps and it is not the answer to avoiding exercise altogether, it can still stand as a fun little reminder or goal to set yourself during the day. The best part, it has never been easier to track!
It isn’t just Fitbits and Smart watches which help you monitor your steps. Almost all of us have phones and most of those phones will actually have some kind of pedometer function built in! Check yours for a ‘health’ app, it might surprise you how much you can monitor on there!
Now that you have a way to see the amount of you do each day, there are a few things that you can start doing in order to get those numbers up! Even if you don’t track your steps, these are just good tips for improving your ADL in general.
1) Take the stairs - It’s easily overlooked just how good stair climbing is for your body. In fact, climbing just eight flights of stairs a day has even been shown to lower average early mortality rates by 33%! Stair climbing is a great cardiovascular exercise which will get your heart rate up, strengthen your leg muscles and keep you knee joints active into later life.
2) Park as further away - Pretty self explanatory, but easy to miss. Instead of parking as close as possible to the shops, try parking that little bit further away. Not only will you be getting in those extra steps, but by carrying your shopping that little bit further, you might even be giving the rest of your body a little workout on the way back too!
3) Walk don’t drive - Most of us have become a little too reliant on cars. If you are heading somewhere which takes 5 minute drive, chances are that you can walk it and get your body moving.
A few other ways to improve your energy levels and ADL also come from your nutrition.
Consider might be your water intake. Aim to drink 2-3 litres of water each day to make sure your body is nicely hydrated. For an added energy boost, try placing some fresh lemon slices into your water and let the juice seep in, not only is it delicious, but will give you an added kick of energy!
Likewise, by starting your day with a nutrition rich breakfast of a lean protein such as oily fish or eggs, selection of cruciferous vegetables and healthy fat, you will be setting yourself up to succeed.
Sidenote: Whilst we are all for improving your ADL, don’t get stressed out by your step count too much, use it as more of a fun reminder! It can become easy to fixate on your step counts and feel deflated if you do not reach them, a much better approach is to do fewer steps but make sure they are good quality steps! 10000 steps of just pavement walking is not as beneficial as 5000-7000 of uphill walking which is getting your heart rate up!
