For the person that made New Year’s resolutions to improve fitness, and likes to watch football, it was a tough start. It was tough to get a workout in when bowl games went from noon until 11:00 p.m. that night. If you were an early morning person, it might be OK. But being an early morning workout person after a New Year’s Eve celebration is a contradiction in willingness to be active.
I started thinking of my resolutions and ways to get a little exercise in between games. It starts with comfortable dress in workout sweats to watch the games. You need to limit the amount of chips, dip, snacks, beer, and tacos during this television marathon of football games. This can also apply to individuals that watch all the shows that go on for several hours.
Research has shown that doing exercise in small increments is almost as beneficial as doing exercise in one long session. If you think how much time the ads and time outs are in any game, or television shows, you get almost 20 minutes every hour. In football games, the sponsors not only have the timeouts the coaches call, but also mandatory television time outs,for commercials from the sponsors that are paying for the game. When you watch a game in person, or sometimes at the end of a commercial, you will see this “official” out on the field who has the responsibility to halt play until the commercials are over and the teams can start to play again. I am always amazed how 30-second timeouts take over three minutes to complete. I haven’t timed the two minute timeouts but it seems like five minutes, or more, is the standard length of time for the commercials.
