According to experts, sneaking in one or more 10-minute bouts of exercise on days when we just can't liberate that half-hour or 40 minutes can deliver impressive fitness benefits. Other than illness or disability, that leaves almost no excuse for not exercising, even for the most time-strapped among us.

Consider also

• Ten-minute workouts also help beginner exercisers ease into active living. Begin with one 10-minute block and work up to three or more a day. Of course, you could gradually stretch any of these to 12, 15, or 20 minutes if the situation permits.

• Veteran exercisers and athletes can use a 10-minute workout as a motivational tool on those days when they lose their oomph and can't work up the get up and go. When that happens to you, negotiate with your lower angels. Say,"Okay, we don't have to walk for an hour. We'll only go for 10 minutes." I've found this trick effective. After a few minutes, I almost always find myself willing to stretch it to 20 minutes, 30 minutes, or even longer.

A few favorites

Parking-lot trot
Having trouble concentrating at work? Pull out that pair of shoes you keep under your desk and substitute a brisk 10-minute walk or trot around the perimeter of the parking lot for your usual a snack break.

Physical exercise helps break the abstraction of "knowledge work" and the fatigue of repetitive-motion physical work. I'll testify that it works wonders for breaking writer's block.

Why wait?
Most of us spend a lot of time waiting: for a child to have her teeth cleaned or finish her swimming lesson, for the doctor after the nurse tells you she's running 30 minutes late, for a car repair, for the casserole to bake. Just keep a pair of appropriate shoes at the ready, check your watch, and head out the door.

Jump for joy
Jumping rope for 10 minutes will give you a rip-roarin' workout. It burns more calories than running. It boosts your mood. It improves your balance and your body's natural rhythm. You can jump indoors or out. You can pack your rope and jump on vacation. You don't need fancy clothes. You don't even need a rope. Twirling your wrists as if you had one works about as well.

Start by marching or running in place for a minute or two, then begin jumping slowly. Beginners can try alternating 30 jumps with 30 steps of marching in place. (Even after years of hard-core triathlon training, it took me two months to work up to a 10-minute glitch-free bout of jumping.)

• Learn the basics and a few intermediate tricks from this YouTube video.

• Need inspiration? Check out these kids

Step it up
Stuck indoors at home with a sick child? Dinner in the oven? Turn on some tunes and work those stairs! Warm up with a slow half-dozen flights up and down. Then charge up, walk down, charge up again, walk down, and repeat.

Note: This workout requires stairways, strong knees, good balance, and good concentration (especially going down, to avoid falls). Add more work to this effort by swinging light hand weights as you go up.

Another stairway workout involves office buildings with several floors and well-lit stairwells. If you work in such a building or have an appointment in one, arrive 15 minutes early and walk the stairs.

Deep-snow shuffle
I discovered this one many years ago while homebound with a sick eight-year-old during a three-day blizzard. I bundled up and pulled on my insulated boots after dinner, turned on the outside light, and began tramping around the unplowed circular driveway.

The deep snow and my clunky boots cushioned the impact and offered muscle-building resistance. The heavy snow muffled noise from the street and falling snow transformed the night. I've continued this magical practice every year during big snowstorms. I've walked, run, skipped and shuffled, often for much longer than 10 minutes.

Wood-chuckin'
Remember the old saw about necessity, the mother of invention? Or the one about wood, heating you twice? In our wood-burning household, we have to cart firewood from the woodshed into the house every day to stay warm.

When it's my turn to load the living-room woodbox, I begin with few shoulder raises with a couple of heavy chunks, perform half a dozen half-squats with each heavy armload, then push the big-wheeled wood carrier around the driveway four or five times before I bring the wood indoors.

You get the idea here: stretch a necessary job into an energetic 10-minute workout.

Airport aerobics
You have a long flight ahead, during which you'll probably sit most of the time. Your flight doesn't leave for an hour or two or more. Although you'll have plenty of opportunities to eat, drink, shop, and sit, why not walk the concourse for a few of those waiting minutes?

What do you do with your carry-on luggage? Well, you could wheel it around with you, carry it, rent a locker and stash it, or strike up a conversation with the little old couple sitting at your gate (guarding two cartons of live lobsters they're carrying for their landlocked son in Arizona) and ask if they'd keep an eye on it while you take a spin around the concourse.

Supermarket sashay
You've arrived at the supermarket with a two-page grocery list and found the parking lot full. You have to park a football field away from the door. Time for action! Pull on the action-ready shoes your always keep in your car and make at least two full trips around the outside perimeter of the parking lot before you go into the store.

Push the cart twice around the interior perimeter of the store, collecting fruit and vegetables, eggs, dairy products, poultry, and meat the second time around. Now, wend your way up and down the center aisles, collecting items on your list as you go.

After you've hit the checkout, make another two brisk turns around the parking lot perimeter with your full cart. Watch for traffic!

Peg Boyles, UNH Cooperative Extension Writer/Editor

TIP: Get a great workout with active household chores like raking, splitting wood, carrying laundry up stairs.

Plan on burning wood this winter to heat all or part of your home?

Consider the secondary fitness benefits this switch to renewable wood fuel can bring into your life

• Sawing, splitting, and stacking wood burn calories faster than any other common household activity except for shoveling snow.

• As it burns calories, working up your winter wood helps build and maintain a strong "core" (abdominals, obliques and back muscles), as well as a stronger upper body.

• And nothing beats wood-splitting for stress relief!

There's a catch, though. (But you knew that.)
Unless you've already built enough strength, stamina, and flexibility, you can't just pick up a chainsaw or a splitting maul in July and expect to work up your winter wood as your daily exercise for the next few days or weeks (or for that matter plan to stack a load of cut-and-split firewood in your woodshed) without risking injury. (See flexibility and strength-training resources below.)

Look on the bright side.
The same stretching and muscle-building exercises that keep you fit for wood-splitting will also stand you in good stead for the onslaught of winter snow-shoveling.

Pace yourself
Help prevent overuse or repetitive strain injuries by alternating short bouts of splitting and stacking wood with other activities: Walk the dog; rake leaves, hang laundry.

For more information

• How much wood can a woodchuck chuck? Colorado outdoor columnist extolls the benefits of wood splitting.

• How to split wood The basics.

• Stretching and flexibility exercises Staying flexible keeps the body prepared for any exercise, including the exercise of daily living.

• Growing Stronger A detailed strength-training manual for beginners of any age (though targeted at older folks).

• Adapt your chores for functional fitness and avoid injury

• Heating with Wood From harvesting firewood to managing the ashes, online resources for wood-burning households.