exercise equipment

Experts recommend working out 45 minutes to an hour a day (30 minutes for beginners) for weight loss and fitness. But if you're like most women
you don't always have a block of 30 to 60 minutes a day to devote exclusively to doing your workouts.

You can still exercise--you just need to sneak in the equivalent in resourceful ways. "The idea is to keep moving
says fitness expert Ann Grandjean, EdD.
Get a cordless phone or put a long cord on your regular phone
and walk when you talk. Find whatever works for you and just move. Park half a mile from the mall and walk. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Those little
itty-bitty things add up."

Every Stolen Moment Adds Up

Lest you think that short bursts of activity have a negligible effect on your fitness program
think again. One study found that women who split their exercise into 10-minute increments were more likely to exercise consistently
and lost more weight after 5 months
than women who exercised for 20 to 40 minutes at a time.

In a landmark study conducted at the University of Virginia
exercise physiologist Glenn Gaesser
PhD
asked men and women to complete 15 10-minute exercise routines a week. After just 21 days
the volunteers' aerobic fitness was equal to that of people 10 to 15 years younger. Their strength
muscular endurance
and flexibility were equal to those of people up to 20 years their junior.

In yet another study
researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore found that for improving health and fitness in inactive adults
many short bursts of activity are as effective as longer
structured workouts. "It would be useful for people to get out of the all-or-nothing mind-set that unless they exercise for 30 minutes
they're wasting their time
says Gaesser.

Breaking exercise into small chunks on your overscheduled days can also keep your confidence up, says Harold Taylor, time management expert and owner of Harold Taylor Time Consultants in Toronto, who has written extensively on the subject.
Skipping exercise altogether is 'de-motivational'--you feel depressed and guilty
Taylor says.
If you skip it
you tend to figure
'What's the use? I can't keep up with it anyway.' Yet as long as you make some effort each day
that motivates you onward. Success breeds success."

Keep in mind
though
that short bursts of exercise are meant to supplement
not replace
your regular fitness routine. Here's a roundup of practical ways to work exercise into your day even when you "don't have time to exercise." (You don't have to do them all in 1 day; select what works for you.)