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By Melissa Tennen, HealthAtoZ writer
Your weeks are jam-packed with too much "life" - racing to work, picking the kids up from soccer practice, making dinner, helping your children with homework. You know the drill.
It's not that you don't like exercise or think it's important, but during the week, you just don't have the time. Instead, you jam it into weekends - going to the gym, running, playing that game of touch football. You're that classic weekend warrior.
Turns out, that's not such a great idea. It can raise your risk for injury.
You don't want to show up to work wounded, limping to your next business meeting on Monday morning. Compressing a week's worth of exercise into two days sets you up for trouble and doesn't do much to increase your fitness level. Those muscles and ligaments that are quiet all week are called into action, suddenly performing work they aren't used to doing.
Break it down
Although some activity is better than none, you still need to take a sensible approach. Try to have at least 30 minutes of exercise each day. If that's too much time to give at once, break it up into 10-minute chunks - a 10-minute walk in the morning before work, a 10-minute walk around the parking lot during lunch and a 10-minute stroll with the dog after dinner. You don't have to walk or engage in the same activity all day. Cut the grass, do the laundry, throw a Frisbee - just do something.
The benefits
There are other reasons to spread your exercise program throughout the week. Exercise is a great stress reliever. It can give you time to yourself so you can work through problems from your workday. It gives you a moment of sanity in a stressful day. Exercise can also relax muscles.
Exercise can help reduce blood pressure and improve cholesterol, helping undo some of the daily damage your body suffers. You can also better control your weight by balancing your daily intake of calories with exercise.
Some tips to remember:
- Make exercise a family priority. Go for an evening bike ride with the kids or for a walk with your spouse.
- Progress slowly, but progress. In an attempt to improve your fitness level and maximize caloric expenditure, increase the time you exercise by 1-2 minutes per week.
- Plan ahead. On Sunday nights, sit down with your calendar and write down times during the week when you are going to exercise. Keep those dates just as you would any other appointment.
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External Sources
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The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
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The American Council on Exercise
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This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.
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