Have you heard of movement snacks? or micro workouts? These are short bursts of movement built into your day. They break up long stretches of sitting, and when practiced regularly provide many of the benefits that you enjoy from regular gym sessions. The best choices are big total-body movements that are fun! Get your blood flowing, improve your cardiovascular fitness and insulin sensitivity, and build some lean muscle. Set your timer and let’s go!

Ground to Overhead- Set up with your feet hip apart. Hinge at your hips and bend your knees. Reach for the ground, keeping your back flat. Now drive straight up, jumping and reaching for the sky. Keep your core engaged through the entire movement. Jumping not your thing? No problem! Just explosively stand, squeezing your glutes and reaching for the sky. You can even come on to your tip-toes at the top to mimic a jumping pattern. Complete a 20- 30 second interval.

Press Back Plank to Bear Hover- Begin in a tall plank position with your shoulders stacked directly over your shoulders and your legs hip width apart. Push back into your hips, and bend your knees. It’s a squat pattern and almost looks like child’s pose, but your knees will be hovering above the ground. Now spring forward back into plank. From here, jump your feet in about 12 inches, so that your knees are just below your hips. This will look like a crawling position, or “bear crawl”, but again, your knees will be hovering just above the ground. Jump into plank to start the sequence again from the top. Keep your core musculature engaged and work to keep a neutral spinal position the entire time. Start with a 30 second work interval, and build up to a minute as you get stronger and more confident with the movements.

Sprinkle sets of these movements (just a minute at a time) throughout your day.