Movement is a wonderful thing for the body and every bit of it helps. Many people don't buy into this theory, and I've even had several of my clients roll their eyes at me. That is, until the pandemic.

A lot of people in the NY Metro area commute into the city for work. Prior to working from home, many of my commuter clients didn't think much of their journey into the city in terms of daily activity. Once the pandemic came, and they were housebound, they realized how little they were moving. Their bodies felt stiffer. How could this be? Well, there was no more walking from the parking lot to the train platform. There was no more climbing several sets of stairs. There was no more walking off the train and hurrying off to work or running to catch the subway. And, once at work, there were more no more long walks to the bathroom or to the cafeteria. At the end of the day, they didn't need to repeat any of this.

A simple commute could involve walking several thousands of steps a day. Even my husband, who drove to work, saw a huge decrease in his daily activity from 5,000 steps to, now maybe 1500?

The real issue is the way we THINK about moving or exercising. Since we have been conditioned to believe that a little bit is NOT valuable, we wind up doing nothing. We feel that if we don't have a good 30-40 minutes to workout, a 10-minute session will be a waste of time. This is simply not true. In thinking this way, we are throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Recently, there has been a lot of studies showing the benefits of short bursts of exercise. Instead of citing them here, I think you should just give it a try and see for yourself how you feel. Do three or four 10-minute mini-sessions of moving during the day. Think of these as an "exercise snack". (I love that phrase—wish I thought of it myself!)  Go for a walk, do 10 minutes of cleaning your house, put on some music and dance. Just move. Besides doing something great for your body, moving will put you in a better mood.

So, if you have a sedentary job, are sitting way too much and feel as if you don't have a chunk of time to exercise, try this. Re-frame your thinking because mini-movement sessions COUNT. You WILL see the difference!

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