Do you hear all the time that you need to work more on your cardio? Working on cardio helps improve your heart rate and your lung function. This is important for everyone who wants to lead a higher quality of life. However, when you hate exercising or don’t have the time to go to the gym, you might feel like you’re out of luck. 

Thankfully, there are some simple ways to add cardio to your daily life so you don’t always have to go to the gym to exercise:

1. Say no to elevators

When you need to travel from one story to another, do you take the stairs or do you take the elevator or escalator? If you’re like most people, it’s probably one of the latter. Well, it’s time to make the change to using the stairs instead.

Walking up and down stairs burns calories and adds cardio to your day-to-day routine. However, we understand that it can be time consuming and exhausting to take the stairs multiple times per day when you work 20 stories up. You can compromise, though. Take the elevator part of the way and finish your journey with the stairs.

2. Get outside

Exercising doesn’t have to be a boring or repetitive activity. Simply going outside to enjoy a wide range of activities can engage your cardiovascular system. Try going for more regular walks, bike rides, swimming sessions or hiking. If you have children or grandchildren, play with them outside. They’ll love the quality time, and your body will love the extra activity.

3. Trick yourself

Exercising is not always going to be at the front of your mind, but you can trick yourself into getting on your feet more frequently. For example, use smaller glasses for water so you have to get up more frequently for refills. Or, whenever driving somewhere, take the first parking spot you see so you have to walk farther to the entryway.

Can you think of some ways you can trick yourself into doing more cardio every day?

Visit Continuum Wellness for help improving your cardio health

At Continuum Wellness, we help a lot of people recover from pain and injuries, but we also help people improve their health to reduce their chances of pain and injury. Whether you need to improve your cardio as part of recovery or part of a prevention plan, we’ve got you covered. Contact our team today for more information about improving your cardio health or to schedule an initial appointment