Why You Should Master the Art of Lazy Exercise
In college, I knew a girl who studied a lot at the gym. She brought the textbook and put it on the treadmill, and somehow she did it. Every time I tried it, I would have a bouncing book, a terrible workout, and I could not get back a single word I read.
I still don’t know how she did it, but since then I’ve developed a remarkably similar habit. In the morning, I sit on an exercise bike for light cardio. I often spend much of my workout looking at my phone. I correspond with friends, read articles and plan my day. My legs are moving, but so is my brain.
Now to be clear: this is not the only exercise I am doing. (I have my strength training, my kettlebell collection, my high-intensity intervals … you get the idea.) But there is some value in doing some exercises that don’t feel like work.
A classic example is walking, right? This is standard health advice – tell people to park in the furthest parking spot, take a walk after lunch, “get in”. Handrails and walking around the area are not the same as marathon training, but walking is definitely physical activity and is considered light cardio in most cases . So why not apply this mindset to other types of exercise as well?
The bike is a great place to start. When I first started trudging to the gym in the early morning (before the pandemic, in front of my home gym), I started each session as gently as possible. I walked into the ranks of exercise bikes and found recumbent, with a seat with a back. I slouched in this seat, pedaled and tried to wake up. It usually worked within five or 10 minutes, and I would break loose and start my real workout.
Steph Auteri writes in Book Riot about how to do the exercises while reading , which first got me thinking about my classmate on the treadmill, but she took a different direction. It turns out that while you are reading, you can stretch and focus in various yoga poses. She reads in a butterfly pose, in a pancake stretch, in a seated turn, and even in a supported bridge pose. Are these movements the best of the most intense exercises a person can do? No, but they are certainly better than sitting idle, not working out.
I found myself doing a lot more exercise throughout the day, when some of them mentally “don’t count”. An hour of lounging around on a bike with my heart rate in zone 1 or 2 is the perfect day of outdoor activities. Here you will meet me most often on Sunday mornings. On weekdays, ten minutes of reading or texting on my phone while cycling isn’t “real workout,” so I don’t doubt it, I’m not setting myself up the shit to crush it . After those ten minutes, I’ve usually warmed up enough that I feel ready to put my phone down and turn up the intensity, which is another benefit of lazy exercise: it makes the non-lazy much more accessible.
And the funny thing is, if you think like an athlete, you probably need more lazy exercise in your life. If you are running, most of your running volume should be done while running so light it almost looks like a joke . You may be able to master this on a treadmill, or perhaps walking on an incline treadmill or training on an elliptical trainer is more your speed.
So think about where you can add some lazy exercise to your life. Read while you are doing it, text your friends, put on a podcast or audiobook that is not compatible with hardcore workout. And see if you end up doing more exercise than you would otherwise.