I commute to work a couple of times a week. Because the road is almost straight, empty, and uneventful, I sometimes have trouble staying awake. I have tried many things over the years to keep me awake. Nothing has helped like doing car exercises. I have my nutritionist to thank for that idea. She told me that to get a little extra physical fitness in during drives that she put her cruise control on and moved her legs around.
So, on my drives I started playing around with that thought. At first, I just pedaled my feet back and forth. After a minute, the muscles start getting tired, so I started adding things and have about an 11 minute routine that I am currently doing. I hope to expand it in the future.
I start with pedaling my feet for a minute, then I kick them for a minute, and finally I lift my knees for a minute. After this, my legs are tired. So I move on to my arms, after all they need exercised too. So with one arm at a time, I punch towards the dash for a minute and then I do curls for a minute. My shoulders and upper arms get fatigued with this. Once completed, I repeat the entire process a second time. It is not much, but I feel it. I hope to see my arms, sides, back, abs, and thighs tighten from this since that is where I feel the burn.
It would be interesting to see what this little routine burns. But what really matters is that I am not sitting somewhat idle on those drives. I can get two things done at once and use a few extra calories.