There are some people who can’t get enough when it comes to exercise — the ones who are up at the crack of dawn for a jog, who squeeze in a class during their lunch break and prioritize boot camps over brunch on the weekends.
And then there are the rest of us. We know we need to exercise — for at least 150 minutes per week, plus two days of muscle-strengthening activities, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — but we don’t necessarily want to. Or maybe we struggle to find the time (not to mention the energy), get easily bored or feel out of our element (and out of shape) at the gym.
Enter: lazy exercise. Yes, there are ways to incorporate movement and exercise into your life without doing the whole no-pain-no-gain thing, or pushing yourself too far out of your comfort zone. Here’s how.
Focus on getting more steps in
Many people aim to walk 10,000 steps per day. Though you don’t actually have to hit this specific number, you can at least focus on beating your weekly average step count (which your smartphone or fitness tracker can measure). Walking comes with all sorts of health benefits, and it’s a simple way to ensure you’re spending less time sitting around (which is not so great for you).
The good news about people who dread exercise? Walking is pretty low-key and easy to work into your day. If you hate how much time exercise takes in your busy life, try getting in some extra steps while you’re busy doing errands (like, say, at the mall); sneak in some laps while your kids play at the park; walk to the store to grab stuff for dinner instead of taking your car; or take work phone calls while pacing around your office.
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Try a micro exercise class
Does a 45-minute class feel like too much of a time commitment? Kira Jones Matousek, founder and CEO of the fitness app Cacti Wellness, tells Yahoo Life that her app features short workout videos — all under 20 minutes — in order for people to build exercises into their life in sustainable ways.
“My big mindset around wellness and working out is that it’s all about consistency and building habits that you can actually stick to,” Matousek says. “If you’re more likely to do 10 minutes of core every day than going just once a week to a really hard workout class, when you are then sore and don’t have the energy to go back … then it becomes a lifestyle.”
Look for apps or YouTube videos that offer shorter workouts that are simple to squeeze in — like when you need a break between Zoom meetings or are waiting for your dinner to cook.
Pair your exercises with something cozy — or fun
TikToker Hope Zuckerbrow introduced the world to “cozy cardio” when she shared her morning routine, which includes waking up early, making herself a fun beverage (like a protein coffee) and then using a walking pad while watching her favorite TV show. Zuckerbrow didn’t even change out of her fuzzy socks in order to get her steps in.
Research says that associating walking with something that makes you feel good (like, say, watching the latest episode of Vanderpump Rules) is an example of pairing — and it can help the habit stick. So, if you can only catch up on your reality TV drama when you’re on the walking pad, that might just be the incentive you need to keep it up.
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Work out while you work
If much of your job is answering emails and Slack messages, consider doing it from a treadmill, says Matousek. She says you should walk at a pace where you are putting a little effort in, but can very comfortably keep up a conversation. “Then up the incline a little bit,” she says. Doing so is a “sneaky way to recruit your muscles,” such as your glutes, calves and posterior chain. Since you’re likely focused on sending out emails and communicating with co-workers, you might find that the workout (and work day) flies by.
Indulge in some “exercise snacking”
You don’t need to do a formal workout class in order to benefit from this form of “lazy” exercise. Try what’s called “exercise snacking,” which are short bursts of activity throughout your day. Maybe that means a few rounds of push-ups in between meetings, and then a couple of sets of squats when your day is done.
These exercise snacks can spike your heart rate (important, considering how we do need those 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week) but they’re way easier to fit into your life than a sustained cardio workout.
While you may not feel like you’re getting a full workout in, these snacks add up, breaking up sedentary time and helping you burn calories and build muscle.
Try the “Lazy 45” circuit
Sometimes, you find yourself in the gym with almost no motivation to move your body. David Mason, sports coach and founder of travel fitness website Barbells Abroad, tells Yahoo Life that when he feels that way, he aims for the “Lazy 45,” in which he picks three or four different cardio machines (like the stair climber, elliptical, treadmill or rower) and switches them up every 10 to 15 minutes. “The beauty is if you’re feeling a little sluggish, the time slots are short enough to know each one is almost over as soon as you start,” he explains.
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Lie down
Exercise that involves standing up? Don’t bother on extra lazy days. If you want to relax while still working out, why not aim for a mat workout instead?
Maeve McEwen, director of programming and head trainer at Pvolve, tells Yahoo Life that getting closer to the ground can encourage you to connect more with your muscles and overall feel more supported. Plus, McEwen says you can also “use props like the wall, balls, pillows or the ground to help alleviate fatigue and support your form,” she says.
There are a bunch of different workouts that involve lying down, including mat Pilates and stretching. Matousek’s Cacti Wellness has a side lying series, in which participants use resistance bands for leg exercises. “You can put your head in your hand, and it’s not going to make it less of a workout for your lower body,” she notes.
Sneak in lazy exercise into your daily activities
You don’t have to plan for lazy exercise all the time — which makes it the most convenient of all. Just tweak your basic routine to be a tiny bit more active or challenging. Here are some examples:
Take the stairs instead of the elevator
Use a resistance band to do some thigh work during a long work meeting
Make your chores more active, like putting some extra muscle into scrubbing your bathtub
Carry your kid’s backpack while walking home from school (it’s basically rucking)
Balance on one foot while brushing your teeth or cooking
Altea Ottawa occupies a former 129,000-square-foot Canadian Tire at the corner of Carling Avenue and Clyde Avenue North. The new fitness and wellness centre offers a variety of classes, including reformer pilates.Supplied/Altea Active
What was once an expansive garage is now home to a large swimming pool in Ottawa’s newest wellness destination – a members-only health and fitness sanctuary that merges self-care and sophistication.
Altea Active, a chain of new fitness and wellness centres, opened the pool at its 129,000-square-foot Ottawa outpost in early May, says chief executive officer Jeff York, a former executive at both Farm Boy and retailer Giant Tiger.
With high-class amenities such as aquatics facilities, recovery areas and multiple types of fitness classes, Altea Ottawa – which officially opened in November – is redefining how and when Canadians get their sweat on in a postpandemic world.
Renewed focus on fitness
In the year after June, 2022, almost 400 fitness and recreational sports centres opened across the country, according to Statistics Canada. At the same time, fitness industry revenue hit nearly $4.3-billion in 2022, up from $3-billion a year earlier as pandemic restrictions relaxed.
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It’s “a new day in fitness” across the country, says Sara Gilbert, president of the Fitness Industry Council of Canada. While Canadians once spent money on trips they had postponed during COVID, they’ve “turned to themselves again” with a renewed sense of urgency, she adds.
The renovation of an old Canadian Tire into arguably Ottawa’s most modern fitness facility reflects an industry that has “always been at the forefront of innovation,” Ms. Gilbert says.
“You look back in the 1980s and we had these huge step-aerobic studios, and that took up most of the space in gyms. The gym industry … our strength is the ability to innovate and always listen to what members need, and the ongoing transition of our facilities to meet those needs.”
Redefining Canadian workout culture
Altea Ottawa is now Canada’s largest fitness and wellness centre.
The $30-million facility boasts nine fitness studios (the spin room alone cost $1-million), six pickleball courts, exercise machines of all kinds and zones for emerging fitness-class concepts such as HyRox (the new CrossFit, Mr. York says). There’s also a postworkout recovery area with red-light therapy and Hyperice cold-therapy boots, a women-only exercise space, the new 25-metre pool, as well as a smoothie bar and a Starbucks in the lobby.
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The $30-million Altea Ottawa boasts nine fitness studios, including its iconic spin room, which alone cost $1-million.Supplied/Altea Active
There are four other Altea locations across the country. A fifth will arrive soon in the former 31,000-square-foot Nordstrom Rack in Toronto’s upscale Yorkville neighbourhood. The forthcoming location will open under the name of AVANT by Altea Active – the company’s ultrapremium offering that’s specific to urban areas such as Yorkville.
“We tend to look at real estate as a static thing, but it services a fluid world, and as that world ebbs and flows, change abounds,” says Shawn Hamilton, principal at Proveras Commercial Realty in Ottawa. “Spaces get occupied with uses we would never have dreamed of.”
Unlike other large-scale gyms, Altea’s facilities won’t be popping up everywhere.
“It’s the opposite of GoodLife. We want to be exclusive,” Mr. York explains. “We are going to [places] where the market is already there for people who want the best. But we want to deliver it at a competitive price where people are still getting value.”
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Standing out in a crowded market
Mr. York says Altea’s competition are mid-sized fitness studios. If you’re a regular at hot yoga, boot camps and spin classes, you could pay upward of $1,000 a month in fees, he explains. Altea offers all that and more in one place – something that is becoming more common across the country.
Altea is not the only fitness centre working to redefine exercise culture in Canada. At Toronto’s The Well, a mixed-use complex less than a kilometre from the CN Tower, sits the newest Sweat and Tonic – a cheekily-named boutique gym that offers more than a half-dozen classes, personal training, a spa with registered massage therapists, a pool and sauna. The city’s Yorkville neighbourhood is also saturated with fitness options, including luxury gym Equinox, Barry’s Bootcamp and three GoodLife gyms.
“You’ve got to be where people live, work and play. That’s the key for the future,” Mr. York says. “You upgrade your facility because that’s where the market is going. The murky middle is not where you want to be.”
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Altea Ottawa features a strength-training area and exercise machines of all kinds. CEO Jeff York says it’s unlike other gyms thanks to its exclusivity and to targeting a part of the market where people ‘want the best.’Supplied/Altea Active
Altea’s Ottawa plan was clear from the start, Mr. York explains, with 80 per cent of the original blueprint becoming reality. It eliminated a restaurant and members’ club from the plan – the same thing it did at the Liberty Village location in Toronto – because it wanted to focus on fitness.
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Challenges of renovation
Altea’s renovation in Canada’s capital took just over a year. A full month was needed just to remove shelves, nuts and bolts from the Canadian Tire for what would become the facility’s hotel-like lobby, Mr. York says.
The challenges also ranged from laughable – swapping the directions of the old escalators – to serious, such as installing individual HVAC systems in each room and studio. It was a hurdle, but it was a success. Despite the facility’s roughly 6,000 members and upward of 350 fitness classes per week, there’s a reduction in body odour because of the new system.
That work was all taking place on the inside.
“No one knew we were working on it because we never changed the physical structure,” Mr. York says. “The biggest question was, ‘When are you going to start construction?’ but we had already started for six months.
“Making a big building feel comfortable is hard to do.”
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Only 16 per cent of Canadians have a gym membership, according to the Health and Fitness Association, so it’s no surprise that fitness facilities in Canada would aim to strike a balance between value and choice.
“Many boutiques under one roof is the way fitness should be delivered,” Mr. York says.
(WTVM) – Summer break just got stronger! Planet Fitness is letting teens in for free with the return of its High School Summer Pass program.
Now in its fifth year, the initiative offers gym access to teens ages 14 to 19 at any Planet Fitness location across the U.S. and Canada.
Pre-registration is currently open and will close on May 31. Regular registration and club access are available for teens from June 1 through August 31.
To find your nearest Planet Fitness location, click here.
Along with the muscles deep in the core and the pelvic floor, the pelvic tilt exercise targets the glutes and lower back, making this simple exercise ideal for improving mobility and posture, and firing up the muscles at the start of a lower-body workout.
Alternatively, you could do them to wind down from your Pilates home workout or as a way to stretch out if you spend your days sitting at a desk. The movement is a “gentle but powerful way to reconnect with your core and realign the spine,” says Paola Di Lanzo, a personal trainer, Pilates instructor, and the founder of Paola’s Body Barre. “Pelvic tilts improve spinal mobility by encouraging articulation through the lower back and pelvis, which is great for people who sit for long periods.”
