Hiding Exercise in Plain Sight
Most advice about exercise begins with the same assumption: that the modern workday contains an unused, gleaming hour just waiting to be claimed. For me, that hour does not exist. Work expands, meetings multiply, and the plan to exercise “later” can turn into “not today, but tomorrow.” So I have adopted a different approach. Rather than treating exercise as a separate appointment, I try to hide it inside the day I already have.
Edited by Pavlína Marek
Working from home makes this easier, but not effortless. I have built small physical demands into ordinary routines. Every couple of days, I take a hike with an empty GORUCK GR1 backpack, then stop for groceries and carry them home. If you start doing this, you’ll want a high-quality backpack like the GR1, which seems bulletproof and can withstand more weight than conventional backpacks.
Thus, my mid-day outings turn a simple errand into a weighted carry. I leave with an empty pack and return with dinner, fruit, vegetables, and a completed workout. I ordinarily carry 25 pounds of groceries approximately two miles, which is not a massive undertaking. But in the middle of a busy day, it’s a good way for me to get some healthy cardio and strength-training fitness.
For more information on exercising with a weighted backpack, see Rucking Your Way to a Better Marathon.
Exercise Snacking
I got the following two ideas from a video by Andrew Huberman. In it, he recommends “exercise snacks” throughout the workday.
I use a stationary bicycle for 30 minutes every weekday while reviewing documents on my computer monitor. This is not a hard interval session, and it is not meant to replace focused training. It is steady movement during a task that would otherwise be entirely sedentary.
The smallest habit may be the strangest-looking one, but, fortunately, only my wife witnesses it. Several times each work day, I walk from my home office to the kitchen, a distance of about 20 meters. When I do, I carry two 25-pound weights. This turns a forgettable walk for coffee, water, or lunch into a short farmer’s carry.
It’s Simple Math
Over the course of a day, those trips add up. They strengthen grip, shoulders, trunk, posture, and general toughness. They also make the workday feel less like one long act of sitting. The American Heart Association recommends strength training at least twice a week and also emphasizes spending less time sitting, noting that even light activity can help offset sedentary time.
Exercise snacks won’t turn every busy person into an elite athlete, and they should be scaled sensibly. (Start with lighter weights, shorter walks, and easy cycling. Do not carry groceries so heavy that they turn the walk home into a grim episode of frontier survival.) However, the principle is powerful: when life is busy, stop looking only for the perfect workout window. Look for the unused edges of the day. Walk with weight. Pedal while reading. Carry something useful. Take the long way. Sometimes the best exercise plan is the one that quietly fits into the life you are already living.
About Scott
Scott Benbow is a San Francisco Marathon Ambassador, attorney, nonprofit specialist, and passionate SFM runner. He lives in San Francisco and runs the hills of our incredibly beautiful city with us every year.
Scott’s website: FoundationTrail.com