The last bell of the school year rings and the doors swing open as students pour out of their classrooms, making their into the first few minutes of the much anticipated summer holiday. The season of relaxation is about to begin.

After all those strenuous late nights and cramming sessions during the year, your body finally deserves a rest.

Sleep. Eat. Chill. This is what summer should be all about, right? Yes and no. By all means, indulge yourself, but do so moderately. There is a fine line between well-deserved relaxation and outright laziness.

If you add up the hours from the moments you wished to be free of work, the total is at least three digits. Twenty four hours a day, 168 hours in a week, 720 hours a month. You would have to spend the entire summer and then some to make up those “lost hours.”

While slacking off does sound fairly stereotypical, the average kid loses motivation during the summer, becomes lazy and does nothing but watch television all day while eating chips.

Laziness aside, many are not exercising enough during summer. With the recent competition for college admissions, an increasing amount of students are choosing to spend their summer building up their résumé. This means spending long periods of time away from the sun and possible physical exercise.

Your summer commitment is not a legitimate excuse to procrastinate on getting exercise. Think of your job as going to school, but with less stress and overtime work. There are many alternative methods of getting exercise that aren’t a direct form of physical workout.

Stop taking shortcuts. Procrastination might pay off for the moment, but you’ll reap the benefits in the future. Instead of depending on elevators, use stairs at all possible times to build up your leg muscles and get your heart pumping.

Turn daily routines into a form of exercise. Consider giving the dishwasher a rest and handwashing the dishes. According to fitday.com, you can burn up to 156 calories an hour if you hand-wash the dishes while standing.

Go shopping! You’ll have fun and work out at the same time. It might surprise you how tiring walking back and forth across the mall with shopping bags is.

If you need another incentive to exercise daily, include friends in your workout plans. Their company makes time fly by and they’re great for keeping you entertained during the most rigorous workouts.

Most importantly, shake up your routine. Next time you have spare time, put on those running shoes, pack a water bottle and let your inner athleticism loose. As the Beatles sang, “here comes the sun, here comes the sun, and I say it’s all right…”­­