For top fitness and optimum weight loss, the expert recommendation of exercise is 45 minutes to an hour per day. Unfortunately, in today’s day and age, most women do not have an hour to spare per day to exercise as much as they would like.

If you are one of these women, do not fret; you can still exercise, as long as you do them in smart and resourceful ways. All you have to remember is that you need to keep moving. By getting a cordless phone or a phone with a long cord, for example, you can walk while talking. Find out ways that will work for you and just keep moving. Park further away from the mall and then walk. Walk up the stairs instead of using the elevator. Little things like that can add up to great fitness and weight loss.

If you think that short sudden bursts of activity cannot help you get fit, think again. Some studies have shown that women who separate their exercise routine into 10-minute exercises tend to work out more consistently and lose more weight in just 5 months compared to women who work out for half an hour at a time.

One such study was done at the University of Virginia, where men and women were asked to finish 15 10-minute exercise routines weekly. After only 21 days, the overall fitness of the test subjects was equal to that of people who were a decade younger than them. In fact, their overall muscle endurance, flexibility and strength were equal to that of people who were 2 decades younger than them.

Another study was conducted at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. Here, it was found that, in order to improve fitness and health in inactive adults, short sudden bursts of activity helped just as much as long, thought-out exercise routines. Some people believe that unless they exercise for at least half an hour, there is no point in exercising at all; this is far from the truth.

Breaking an exercise routine into smaller exercises on hectic days can also heighten your levels of self-confidence. Completely skipping exercises will do nothing to motivate you; it will just leave you guilty and depressed. Always try to make some sort of effort everyday to keep you motivated. Success breeds success, after all.

However, do keep in mind that short sudden bursts of activity are done to supplement – not replace – a regular workout. They should serve as practical substitutes to work out on the days in which you do not have time to exercise, nothing more.