Get Exercise With The Couch Potato Workout

Last Updated on October 27, 2020

Most people cite lack of time as the reason they don’t get enough exercise.  Ironically, on average, Americans watch between 4 and 5 hours of television per day. 

I get it.  You get up early to get yourself and the kids ready for the day.  Your day is full of things you have to do for home and your work outside the home (either your job or volunteering—or both if you’re really an overachiever).  And at the end of the day there are more tasks waiting:  making dinner, cleaning up, helping kids with homework, possibly soccer practice or piano lessons for one of the kids, and then getting the kids ready for bed. 

So of course for the few moments in there when you can sit and not think or do anything for a little while, watching TV is the perfect entertaining, non-demanding distraction.

A Trick For Sneaking In 30 Minutes Of Physical Activity

I also understand that you don’t necessarily want to concentrate on working out while you are trying to relax and watch TV, which is why you aren’t jump roping through your favorite sitcom to get your recommended 30 minutes of daily exercise. 

So, here’s a trick for sneaking in your 30 minutes of physical activity without interrupting your television viewing—exercise during the commercials.  I suggested this in my post on sneaky exercise and a lot of the feedback I got is that people don’t want to think about what exercises to do, they want to have a workout already in mind so they don’t waste half the commercial time figuring out a workout.

The Couch Potato Workout: How to Make the Most of Commercial Breaks

I’ve heard you and since I consider it my personal mission to help you get healthy, here’s a workout you can print out and keep next to your remote control.

Commercial Break 1:

• Pretend jump rope for the entire break.  We’re going to call this your warm-up.

Commercial Break 2:

• 15 Push-Ups
• Jumping Jacks until the end of the commercial break

Commercial Break 3:

• 15 Coffee Table Tricep Dips
• High Knees until the end of the commercial break

Commercial Break 4:

• Plank for first 2 commercials
• Butt Kickers until the end of the commercial break

Commercial Break 5:

• 25 Squats
• 10 Lunges on each leg
• Burpees until the end of the commercial break