This is another post in our series of Fitness Saturday exercises, workouts, and expert tips appropriate to women in the second half of life. Jonathan Urla, a certified advanced health and fitness specialist, shares some common activities that can easily be turned into exercise.

In a past post, I talked about how valuable it can be to keep a log of your workouts. Not only is it a way to see the results of your efforts, but it can also help to keep you inspired. That said, I don’t want you to think that staying fit is only about doing a specific workout. It is easy to fall into the mindset that you have to either go to the gym or do a fast walk around the block, otherwise you failed at meeting your exercise expectations. The truth is every day there are activity opportunities that, when done mindfully, can be turned into valuable exercise moments.

Let’s look at some common activities that can easily be turned into exercise, and you don’t need to be wearing your gym clothes to do them, although do wear your workout sneakers if you can.

• Travel: Most of us have to travel to several places throughout our day. Pick one place you have to go to where you might be able to walk instead of ride. Maybe you have several places you have to go to in the city. You could park in between two places and walk the distance between them. If one place is on a hill, park at the bottom of the street and walk up and down 5 times before doing your errand or appointment. See if your walk can be for at least 15 minutes. If you walk it quickly enough, it definitely counts toward exercise. Note it down!

• Stairs and Benches: Many places we work in have stairs of several flights. Instead of the escalator or elevator, take the stairs instead and do them with energy. Likewise, there are many public benches around small urban parks in most towns. You could practice doing bench squats (see below) where you bend your knees and sit your hips back to where your buttocks just touch the bench, and then you stand back up. Do two sets of twenty with a 20 second rest in between.

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