The FUNcercise craze

What is FUNcercise, you ask?  Well, it is exercise that is fun. Simple enough.  I did not come up with the idea (it was from a friend of a friend or something like that) or the name (a friend did)—but it’s been very successful among my friends so I wanted to share. 

I’ve traveled so much in the past few years that all my friends live in various states.  This makes it extremely hard to find an exercise buddy-- so I created a virtual exercise program for me and my friends rather than joining one with strangers.  I created a Google Docs spreadsheet to record daily exercise minutes and I asked a group of friends if they wanted to join, and so far it’s been great!

Multiple people can edit the Google Doc at the same time, and its updated automatically which makes it extremely easy and user friendly. There’s even a little bar graph showing each person’s minutes (see photo below).  Any kind of exercise counts as long as it gets you moving and gets your heart rate going.  The individual goal is to reach 1,000 minutes of exercise per month (easier than it sounds)—but it’s also fun to race each other and see who can get the most minutes.  It’s simple enough for anyone to do—no matter what fitness level or what physical activity works for you.  And you can make up your own rules for your group--maybe instead of minutes you want to record miles or steps per day.


Our group currently consists of 10 women who reside in 9 different states.  And some of us are clearly FUNcercise addicts (which is a good thing!).  Good friendly competition!  Give it a try with your friends if you need some motivation to get some exercise this winter.