A Gift Wrapping Workout

One of the most frustrating things about the way our culture defines "exercise" is that it's separate from life. It's something we have to make time for when we are already struggling to make time for everything that feels important. It's a system that sets people up to fail.

Listen, I think there *is* value in dedicated exercise time. (But, I believe the mental and emotional benefits far exceed the physical benefits of formal exercise.)

This weekend, I spent a few hours wrapping Christmas presents AND moving my body. I got two hours of stretching and strengthening in as a got up and down from the floor, crawled, and practiced a ton of squats and forward bends.

Here are my tips if you have wrapping left to do:

• Work on the floor
• If your hamstrings are tight, sit on a firm cushion or blanket stack
• Sit on your sit bones, instead of your sacrum
• Vary the position of your legs: wide in a V, soles together in bound angle, V-bound angle mashup (one leg in each, then switch), squat, thunderbolt, squat-thunderbolt mashup (one leg in each, then switch), easy cross-legged (be sure to do both sides - alternating which shin is in front)
• Bend forward from the hip creases not the waist
• Crawl to get supplies
• Get up and down from the floor a lot (try not to use your hands)

(BTW...these are also the positions I cycle through while working on my laptop. I sit on the floor with my laptop on a chair or stool.)

I call this "weaving movement into the fabric of your day." This is my jam, and I'm gonna help you do more and more of it in the coming year, so make sure you are following along!

Happy, happy and merry, merry!