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Sleep vs. Exercise: What's more important?

Posted on Sep 9th 2008 5:59PM by Martha Edwards

Over at Fitsugar, they recently addressed this question: What's more important, sleep or exercise? Obviously, both are essential to a healthy lifestyle, but if you're so busy that you have to lose precious sleep to get your exercise, which activity should be cut? Their answer: You should always be getting seven to eight hours of sleep, and if that means you can't get to the gym at 6 am every morning, so be it.

Still, that doesn't mean you can't exercise. You owe it to yourself to try to fit in a workout where you can. Some suggestions?

  • It's an oldie but a goody: take the stairs, and go up them as quickly as you can. Ten minutes of intense exercise a few times a day can have the same results as a 45-minute non-intense workout.
  • Ever considered biking or walking to work or school? It's exercise -- and you're getting somewhere while you're at it.
  • Instead of getting up an hour earlier to go to the gym, why not get up 20 minutes earlier and do a workout at home? There are tons of 20-minute workout DVDs out there, or you can make your own workout plan with simple exercises like sit-ups, push-ups, jump rope, etc.

I'm sure you have even more great ideas on how to fit in a workout -- please share!

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