Incidental Exercise

3rd September 2021 - By Bel Payne

Have you ever found yourself talking on the phone to your bestie or your mum or your boyfriend and the next thing you know - it's been 30 minutes, 45 minutes or over an hour?

Imagine if you could burn kilojoules, whilst on the phone!

Well guess what Queen… you DO and you CAN!

One of the best ways to burn more kilojoules while you are on the phone is to walk around. Even better if you can do a few squats while you're at it. The great thing is that is doesn't detract from your conversation, you're not distracted because you are still listening and engaging with the person on the phone but you are working out at the same time.

This type of 'exercise', is called incidental exercise. It's a type of movement that fits into your everyday life, without it being a planned session or activity. Its unscheduled movements you can get from carrying out your daily tasks.

For the science minds, like me, the more scientific term for incidental exercise is called non-exercise activity thermogenesis or simply NEAT. It represents the majority of daily activity thermogenesis that occurs in your body’s cells, using up energy to carry outs it’s normal functioning. In active people who are working out or training on a regular basis as well as moving more regularly throughout the way through incidental exercise or an active job, their NEAT is higher.. Put simply: active people generally move more and tend to burn more energy than a person who goes to the gym, but works a sedentary job. Thermogenesis is the body's ability to generate heat (or burn energy) through muscle contractions and general cell functioning.

People who work in active jobs already, such as tradies, landscapers or farmers, already have large amounts of NEAT. It's very rare you see an obese tradesperson in active jobs such as building or roofing. You might see an overweight person because of the "pie and coke" culture; however, it's unlikely for them to be obese. Active jobs allow those people to increase their NEAT each day and therefore are generally more active and burning more energy.

For those in sedentary jobs, there is less opportunity for NEAT throughout the day because they spend so much time sitting; however, there is a plethora of opportunities or anyone, regardless of their job to increase their NEAT!

If you work in an office or spend a lot of time on the phone at work - it might be a good idea for you to order a cordless headpiece. Not only is this good for your body ergonomics while you are on the phone, but it allows you to stand up and pace. The added benefit of this is that you are allowing more blood to flow through your body and into your brain which allows more glucose and oxygen to flow into the brain cells and tissues therefore increasing your ability to concentrate.

Although this simple strategy is minimal in the amount of energy you are burning - the point is: you are more active throughout your day. This slight increase has significant benefits to your brain functioning, the number of muscle contractions you complete throughout the day and of course keeps you moving and motivated.

I could go on for hours about ways you could increase your NEAT each day, here are some of my favourites: take the stairs…ALWAYS, park your car further away from the entrance to the shops, ride your bike or walk to places where it is possible, do squats between episodes on TV or Netflix (or just don't watch TV) and take mini breaks for stretches or exercises while you work at your desk.

Incidental exercise can be a personal and fun challenge for you! If you wear a smartwatch, it will be able to track the added movements you are doing throughout the day. See if you can set a limit to reach each day - or try to beat your movements from the previous day!

In summary: the concept is simple: more movement = more contractions = more energy burned OR put even simpler: MOVE MORE EVERYDAY!

- Bel x