Hey!
Hi Everyone. As you may have gathered, I’m easing my way back into the blogosphere in 2013 being as I don’t wanna peak too early. 
I’ve been posting a few morsels on Facebook but apart from that I’ve been relatively lazy. BTW, if you haven’t friend requested me yet on FB yet, why the heck not? If you feel so inclined, do a search on my name and choose the plain one with my photo – not the one that says ‘motivational speaker’.
Anyway…
Yesterday I posted (on Facebook) that the average Aussie watches around 25 hours of TV per week (the majority of that being in the p.m. hours). Now, you may not know that an average hour of night time commercial television contains about fifteen minutes of ads. So, imagine if instead of channel surfing, eating crap or making another cuppa while the ads are on, we used those small instalments (of about three minutes) to move our body, elevate our heart rate, stimulate our muscles and expend a few extra calories. We could do this via simple but effective activities like stair walking, step ups, exercise bike, skipping, squats, lunges, sit-ups, push-ups, dips or a myriad of other body-weight exercises. We don’t need to join a gym (and this is coming from a gym owner), we don’t (necessarily) need special equipment or training clothes, we don’t need to hand over any money, we need not worry about the weather and we don’t have to travel to a facility. If the average person only ever ‘worked out’ during the ads, he or she would exercise for around 375 minutes (six and a quarter hours) each week. Which equates to more than three hundred hours of structured exercise per year.
Now, here’s where it gets really interesting…
Some Numbers
If that person were me (for example), based on my current bodyweight of 85 kgs (187lbs) and assuming that I’m working out at a moderate intensity for my mini-workouts, I would expend an extra 2,500 calories each week (approximately) or around an extra 130,000 calories over the course of a year. Scientifically speaking, that equates to a shit-load. Now, knowing that it takes plus or minus 3,500 calories to ‘build’ or lose a pound of body-fat, these figures tell us that, all other things being equal, a person who weighs 85kgs and has significant fat to lose could drop something in the vicinity of 37lbs (17kgs) over the course of a year just by getting of their arse during the ads. If you’re heavier, that weight-loss figure will increase and if you’re lighter it will be a little lower.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a great idea, Craig, however, here in the states people have become addicted to DVRs and Netflix making it possible to eliminate ads during television watching… :-/
Stay cool! I hear it’s pretty warm in Australia lately…
Added to that if you are busy exercising you can’t be making that cuppa and eat all that food you don’t really need – bonus. Might need to make sure that you have water handy though.
Great idea, Craig. I can feel fit creeping on almost involuntarily.
Erm – I rarely watch commercial channels! But I will get up from my computer every 30 mins for a two minute workout.
By the way, I enjoyed your appearance on 774, Craig – good to hear as well as read what you have to say.
Is there a possibility, when doing this kind of exercise, of getting significant muscle imbalances – ie if you just do sit ups and push ups will you end up with a hunch back and a bluging gut?
Are you crazy Craig! You’ll put the gyms out of business!
Great idea, more movement is better. Love the simplicity.
Cheers
Used to do this regularly and yes, it worked nicely. At the very least it helped motivate me to move and do some more exercise.
I used to assign an exercise to an ad and do that exercise for the duration of that ad, and then change to another exercise. Although standing up and sitting down without using hands for support is good exercise, there are some really good exercises that can be done whilst seated, eg: ab curls, cycling and moving your coffee mug from side to side.
Hi Craig!
This is the reason I bought myself a gym ball (bargain at Kmart for $12!!!) Anyways, I sit on the ball while I watch movies. Sit = roll, bounce, jiggle, dance, and generally move around. Makes a good workout without having the tediousness attached to it