Some good and well intentioned ideas just never take off. Such is the case of Colin Kerr and one of his contraptions from back in the 1970's. There might be earlier documented inventions similar to this one, but going back almost 40 years is far enough because since that time we've developed a health epidemic in the United States known as obesity. What was the invention? Colin Kerr hooked the family TV up to a generator powered bicycle. So in order to watch television you had to exercise by peddling the bike.
There are several generator devices that receive their power from bikes or hand cranks, but exercising just to provide electricity has never really captivated the country. What has proven to be valuable is to integrate an exercise as part of a video game. There are now games that you can interactively ride a bike, swing a golf club or bat, or even just the simple motion with of a Wii hand held remote will place you into the action of the game. It's certainly no substitute for actually going outside and participating in these activities, but it's better than just sitting on the couch.
Speaking of the couch, it seems that we spend almost as much time there as anywhere else. According to Nielsen (Q3 2008), the average American watches around 4.6 hours of television per day. Imagine the incredible path our country could forge and the future we could build for our families if we even spent even just one of those days in the Bible, learning the morals and guidance that our country was founded on. A 4.6 hour Bible study per week would have a greater impact on you and your life than almost any program that you would have watched during that time. Ask yourself which will have a more positive long term impact, the immoral lessons of Desperate Housewives or studying the miracles of Jesus in the Gospels?
Okay, now that I've stepped down from my soapbox pulpit and you have agreed to read and study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John at least one day (4.6 hours) per week, we'll address the real issue of this article, battling obesity.
We all know how important physical exercise is but most people can never find time to fit it into their schedule. Allow me to introduce the "Couch Workout". It's a simple formula to increase your time management through multi-tasking while watching television. Your workout will consist of imitating some of the programs you watch along with activities to do during commercials. The average 30 minute television program includes around 8 minutes of commercials, so during the average 4.6 hours of TV per day there are about 72 minutes of commercials. That's over an hour and ten minutes each day that you can institute some physical activity without leaving your couch. That alone could almost completely eradicate the obesity epidemic!
It's called the "Couch Workout" because we're going to actually use the couch as your exercise buddy. Every time your program goes to commercial, we want you to participate in one or more of these exercises for the duration of the commercial break.
Working larger muscle mass and multiple muscle groups has a greater effect so let's start with squats.
You can do squats by sitting down so that you just barely touch the seat and then popping right back up to a standing position. Do as many of these as you can during a 2 or 3 minute commercial break and your thighs will more than likely start screaming long before your program comes back on.
Another good one is tricep push-ups. While seated, just place your hands on the cushion next to your hips and then push down on the cushion and try to elevate your body off of the seat. If you're in a chair, use the arms of the chair or to challenge yourself even more, lower your back pocket all the way to the floor and then press down, straightening your arms and bringing yourself back up above the cushion. Do as many as you can during the commercials or vary the exercise by holding the position with your body elevated above your chair or cushion for as long as you can.
A classic with several variations that your workout buddy (your couch) can help with are push-ups. During the next commercial break, get up and stand behind the couch with your hands on the backrest and your feet a short distance from the couch, then do as many push-ups as you can. To make it more challenging place your hands on the side arm of the couch with your feet quite a distance from your hands, or if you're really trying to impress the rest of the family, place your hands on the ground and put your feet up on the couch so that your legs are higher than your arms and see if you can go for the entire commercial break.
Other Couch Workout exercise variations can include jumping jacks, sit-ups, tucking your knees up to your chest, alternating elbow to knees (bicycle crunches) or fun things like passing a pillow back and forth as fast as you can.
Then there's the bonus plan. If you're watching a sport, make it interactive. Every time Adrian Peterson touches the ball, stand up and run in place as fast as you can until he's tackled. Or take your own swing to coincide with Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter, Roger Federer, or anyone else that you might be watching.
You may not watch 4.6 hours of television each day, but the goal of this article is to show you how easy it is to incorporate simple exercise strategies into normally inactive every day functions like watching television. No matter how many hours you spend on the internet or in front of the TV, make it a goal to get up and move around. If you have other members in your house, encourage them to participate with you and make it a family affair. They might laugh at you for running in place during a football game but challenge them to join in and pretty soon you'll all be laughing together. You can even try it out when friends invite you over for the game or if you're watching at a restaurant (yeah, maybe not in the restaurant).
So will the "Couch Workout" go the way of Colin Kerr's bicycle generator powered TV, or will your family embrace it and have fun with it like a Wii game? It's your decision. Will you continue to just sit on the couch or are you willing to take up the challenge of living a healthier life and putting in a little effort that might help prevent you from leaving your loved ones before it's your time?
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