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The Waiting-Around Workout

by Peter Shankman
Mon, 17 Dec 2007 at 11:03 PM

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This morning at Commerce Bank, I was waiting on line and the guy in front of me falls down.

Before I even had a chance to dial 911 (and by dial 911, I mean shout "holy crap!" and then grab my cell phone), he stands back up. And falls back down. And stands back up.

At this point, my curiosity was piqued. So I asked. Because, you know, I'll talk to anyone.

"What the hell?" I asked, in my charming way.

"I don't go to the gym. Rather, I work out whenever I can. Usually when waiting in line," he said, while dropping again.

Turns out his dropping to the floor wasn't a heart attack to the nth degree, but rather, pure, unadulterated squats.

Yeah. Shocked the hell out of me, too!

But he was!

And the more I think about it, the more I think he's the brilliant one.

See, how much time are we wasting on a daily basis doing things like standing in line? Waiting for the subway? Waiting for the bus? Waiting for our dry cleaning, or for the elevator?

I'm not saying we have to do 20 squat-thrusts while six people are standing with us waiting for the elevator. But what about simply tip-toe stretches? Works the calves. Or on the subway, holding on to the overhead pole? Why not flex our shoulders and arms and let our arms hold our weight for two seconds per arm?

Seems like a lot of time we're wasting trying on a regular basis that we could probably use towards dropping a few inches from the other kind of waist.

You think?

Top five exercises I think we can do while hanging around…

5) Briefcase or Shoulder Bag Arm Curl: 10 times, each arm.

4) Elevator Butt-Clench (works the glutes): once for each floor on the elevator. Work on the 58th floor? You're gonna have a great ass by March.

3) Lunchtime Waiting-on-Line Lunge: Waiting on a long line at the bank, or the DMV, or Ray's Pizza? Each step forward, do two lunges.

2) The Subway Step Two-Step: Waiting for the subway? Walk up and down the closest flight of steps to your track until the train comes.

1) The Make-the-Light Gallop: If you're walking towards the light and it starts to flash "Don't Walk," run for it. Make as many as you can in a row.

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