Written by Paul R. Burghardt, PhD

Why is it such a pain to exercise?

There are likely several factors that make it difficult to maintain exercise programs. A substantial hurtle, in my opinion, is that it takes time. Obvious statement, I know. But, think about how much you have to do in a given day. We’re busier than ever! We’re doing more in our day-to-day lives because a lot of things have been made easier and more efficient as ‘technology’ has plowed forward. Since we can do so much more, dedicating a chunk of time away from our technological vices, to run around the neighborhood in shorts, may seem like a period of lost productivity. Or a time better spent relaxing.

I know what you’re thinking…‘Here we go, he’s leading us down some techno-phobic rant that will culminate in the demise of the world as we know it’…but, I’d like to pose that technological innovations are starting to provide us with some great options for multi-tasking physical activity into our daily grind. And always remember that maintaining or increasing physical activity levels (exercising is one option) is very productive.

If you work at a desk job, how much walking do you THINK you do in a day? Here’s an easy, and disturbing, little experiment you can run to find out. If you’re so inclined, go out and buy a pedometer…if you haven’t heard of them they are a little beeper-looking device that will count the number of steps you take when it is clipped to your belt; you can find several options for less than $10. Estimate how many steps you think you take during the course of a normal workday. Then, strap that little bugger on your hip and wear it around for a week. Record your steps at the end of each day (try doing it for a full workweek and calculating your average daily steps), and chances are you will be appalled by what you see.

This is an important people experiment for people to run on themselves. In most cases, I don’t think people know how little physical activity they are engaging in on a day-to-day basis…I know I was shocked when I tried it on myself.

Now that you know the awful truth, how do we go about increasing our physical activity levels?

One option is setting aside a dedicated chunk of time to exercise. It’s a good idea, and I work to make it a priority in my life. But this approach doesn’t work for everyone, and exercise is often one of the first things to be dropped when we start to get overwhelmed with our “to-do” lists.

The other tried and true option is to make things a little more difficult. For example, park out at the end of the parking lot, take the stairs not the elevator, shovel the snow instead of using the snow-blower, and so-on. This is good advice, but again, it will end up requiring more of your time, and if we’re in a time-crunch, we’re more likely to cheat.

So how do we get it in? Well….what if we incorporated it into something we have to do everyday. Something that is a necessity and that we can’t cheat on time.

Two recent products could provide the opportunity for people to increase their levels of physical activity while simultaneously accomplishing at least other daily task. One could be used during your commute and the other while you are at your “desk.”

You can incorporate some physical activity into your commute with little need for technological assistance. Walking, or riding a bike are options. Now, this may only be an option for people who live close enough and in an area amenable to walking or biking. But for those who live in these types of areas why wouldn’t they? One reason is that no one wants to get all sweaty before they walk into work for the day, right?

Well, the RevoPower bike tire may offer a solution to this problem. This bike tire has a motor and you can easily mount it onto your existing bike. It runs at speeds of approximately 20 mph (so it isn’t considered a motor vehicle) and can reportedly get up to 100 miles on a gallon of gas. That’s pretty cool. If you didn’t want to end up all sweaty you could rely on the motor during your commute into work, and pedal your way home at the end of the day. It may also be economically beneficial if you end up saving on gas and not needing to pay for parking.

Another option comes from a research group at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. What they have developed is a workstation designed around a treadmill, referred to as the Walk-and-Work desk. It’s not a treadmill you can run on, it only operates at low speeds… walking at a pace of 1 mph is pretty slow (typical walking pace is about 3 mph). The interesting thing is if you were able to walk during the course of a normal working day you would burn an extra 500-700 calories depending on your individual physiology. That’s 2500-3500 extra for a 5-day work week (equal to one pound of fat), with a potential loss of up to 52 pounds a year; assuming you don’t do anything else and your diet stays the same.

Not only do these provide advantages for weight management, but mental, and therefore job, performance may be enhanced. Now this would need to be tested to determine how much of a benefit would provided, but there’s a lot of science that already shows exercise increases awareness, attention, vigilance and cognitive function. Those factors alone would probably benefit a number of people around the 3pm lull when there’s no coffee left in the break room.

One of the obvious concerns is, of course safety. But if people are able to incorporate these products safely and maintain or improve performance, think of the multitasking capabilities. Plus, this could provide your physical activity without having to make a dedicated trip to the gym freeing up time for other activities.

I want to make it clear that we have no affiliation with RevoPower or the Walk-and-Work desk, nor do we endorse (or not endorse for that matter) these products. But they provide very interesting and in my, opinion, exciting pieces of technology that might help some people work more physical activity into their daily lifestyle. Hopefully, we’ll start to see more inventions that parallel this type of ingenuity.

While these options may not be for everyone, they are two examples of what’s coming around the corner.