Looking to be more active? NPR’s Life Kit gives tips for fitting in exercise into a hectic schedule and stay motivated to move with research-backed strategies.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
See, here’s a question. How much have you moved today? For a lot of us, the answer is very little. Maybe we got into the car, walked a short distance to the office, or maybe we’ve barely left the couch. The thing is, our bodies love movement, and we make a point of taking a walk after dinner or going for a jog or dancing in the living room, we see the benefits. Our guts feel better. we sleep better. We have more energy. Our blood sugar is better regulated. Our moods improve. NPR’s Life Kit has been looking at how we can fit more movement into our busy days. Here’s Life Kit host Marielle Segarra.
MARIELLE SEGARRA, BYLINE: Maybe you’re not moving or exercising much because you feel like you don’t have time. I’m here to tell you that if you can’t carve out an hour for a spin workout, that’s fine. Try smaller movement breaks instead.
KATY BOWMAN: Your free time is likely going to show up in pockets that are much smaller than you were anticipating but are meaty, you know, if you really look at them and put them together.
SEGARRA: Katy Bowman is a biomechanist who studies how forces and motion affect the body and co-author of the book, “I Know I Should Exercise, But…” She says we can seize those small moments of downtime throughout the day.
BOWMAN: You got someplace early, and you now have seven minutes or 12 minutes. Tune into that. Set this as an intention or a cue that anytime you find yourself sort of sitting idly in your car, you’re going to get up, and you’re going to get out, and you’re just going to move around, go for a very brief walk. You can hop in place. You can reach up and touch the top of the car.
SEGARRA: Sometimes I do calf raises when I’m brushing my teeth ’cause I always remember to brush my teeth.
BOWMAN: When you’ve got something that happens regularly in your day and you tether movement to that, then that occurrence in your day becomes a reminder.
SEGARRA: Have some fun with this. Martinus Evans is a marathon runner and author of the book “Slow AF Run Club: The Ultimate Guide For Anyone Who Wants To Run.” And he says, for example, if you’re taking care of your child…
MARTINUS EVANS: Look, grab a kid and do some air squats. Use them as a weight. Now you got a 10-to-15-pound weight. Hold your baby out and curl him with your biceps. Kiss them. Like, that’s the thing about exercise. Like, all of this is cumulative, and all of it is beneficial.
SEGARRA: You can also use behavioral science techniques to stay motivated. Try temptation bundling, pairing your exercise with an activity you like – for instance, watching your favorite TV show – and only watch the show when you work out. Katy Milkman is a professor at the Wharton School of Business who researches behavioral change.
KATY MILKMAN: My research has shown that it can increase the rate at which people exercise if they combine a real pleasure that they look forward to with their workouts. So you’re not allowed to watch “The Crown” unless you’re at the gym. That’s the idea. And as a result, you’re going to start craving trips to the gym to see the next episode, and you won’t feel any guilt about spending time watching TV because you’ll be working out.
SEGARRA: OK, lastly, the best kind of exercise is the kind that you will actually do. For me, it’s running outside, using my stationary bike, doing yoga at home, and going rock climbing ’cause it makes me feel like a secret agent scaling the walls on a special mission. Take yourself seriously when you’re bored or you’re dreading a certain kind of exercise. And if there’s a kind of movement you find intriguing, try it out. It could become your favorite way to move. For NPR News, I’m Marielle Segarra.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DETROW: For more Life Kit, go to npr.org/lifekit.
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
