It’s no secret that a functional fitness routine will improve your everyday life, which is why at Fit, we stress the improvements that exercise has on daily movement and mobility! But did you know you can “hack” your daily movements to integrate functional fitness exercises into your daily life? It’s a win-win! Here are some of our favorite ways to hack our lives to improve our functional fitness!
- Try a balance challenge! When you’re brushing your teeth, waiting in line, warming up your dinner, or basically any time where you are standing still for a few minutes, try standing on one leg for a few moments and then alternate! You don’t have to balance for long! This small addition to your day strengthens your stabilizer muscles and improves your coordination over time, enhancing your ability to do gym AND daily movements!
- Incorporate proper lifting form into everyday tasks! Picking up some groceries, or instance? Treat them like you would a deadlift and hinge at the hips, keep a neutral back, keep your core tight, and drive through your heels on your way back up! Think of everyday tasks in relation to how you would do those movements correctly at the gym. Not only are you less likely to injure yourself when you keep a proper lifting form doing everyday tasks, but (just like anything else) the more you practice a movement, the more likely you are to do it correctly when you add weight during your workouts!
- Practice engaging your core! Core engagement is essential to reduce the chance of injury and make your workouts more effective. Even if you are just hanging out on the couch or driving your car, you can briefly engage your core for a few seconds a couple of times to help build up some strength. When doing physical tasks in daily life, be mindful of your core engagement, just like you would at the gym. In everyday life, core strength (and engagement) provides stability to your body’s center, leading to better posture, reduced risk of injury, improved balance and coordination, enhanced performance in various activities, and can help alleviate back pain by supporting the spine!
- This one goes hand in hand with core strength and engagement- work on your posture! Be mindful of how you sit. Do you slouch? Lean forward too much? Hunch your shoulders? Poor posture leads to pain. A strong core helps you maintain better posture, but being mindful of practicing better posture can also help you build your core muscles since you engage them when you have good posture!
- Fit in some “exercise snacks!” Instead of playing on your phone when you get a few minutes between tasks at work, do a few lunges, squats, a couple of pushups, a plank, a wall sit, or any other quick bodyweight exercise. You’ll add movement to your day, feel less bogged down, and practice functional movements that will help you both in your daily life and your workouts!
We would love to hear YOUR favorite ways to incorporate functional fitness hacks into your day-to-day life?