First an apology: this article has nothing for firemen, farmers, or professional athletes. If you work in an active physical job you don’t need any tips from me on how to get exercise into your day.
For the rest of us, who sit in front a computer screen all day and television screen all night, getting a bit of exercise into your day can make a massive difference. Exercise will make you healthier. Together with a good diet it will help you obtain your ideal weight. Best of all it will give you more energy to enjoy your day.
We all know that a full exercise program is the best thing for our health but in our hectic lifestyles we can’t always find the time. And, let’s be honest, we can’t always find the motivation.
But there are small things we can do in our normal day. They can’t replace a real work out but they can help to keep our fitness levels up and our weight levels down. Why not get fit on your bosses time?
Try and see how many of these snack size exercises you can fit into your sat-in-a-chair office day. Why not work out while in the office?
Walk
Almost all of us walk every day. But we usually try and walk as little as possible. We think walking is a waste of time when we could be doing something else. It’s not! Walking is free low impact exercise and ideal for keeping your heart healthy. If you can, leave the car at home and walk to work. If you can’t, consider parking further from the office so that you get some exercise every morning and every evening on the way to and from work. Be warned: this doesn’t work if you are running late! Walk more in the office too. There is no rule to say that you have to use the nearest bathroom or drinks machine. If you have a meeting with only one or two others why not have it while walking somewhere quiet? Getting the blood flowing will stimulate creativity. You will probably get more out of your colleagues. No one can take a quick nap in the middle of a stroll. Exercise your legs
Do you spend your days sitting at your desk typing? Your fingers are busy but your legs have nothing to do. You can buy ankle weights. Simply lifting your legs under the desk while wearing these works out the front of your thighs. But you don’t have to spend money on it. Anything you can balance on your foot, a carrier bag with a book in it for example, would work as well. To work out your thighs you can place you feet directly underneath you and raise yourself slightly out of your chair. Try and do this subtly. Your colleagues might find you bobbing up and down a little strange! Carry things at arms length
When carrying something the further you hold it from your body the harder it is to carry. This will work out your arms and core strength. With a heavy bag you only need to hold it slightly further from you to get the benefit. Again you may want to be subtle. Holding a folder out in front of you and marching around the office is more likely to get you psychiatric help than physical fitness. Use the stairs
We all know we should. Somehow we always find a reason not to. But using the stairs is the best exercise we can get at work. There will be times when you shouldn’t use the stairs. You may have an important meeting. You don’t want to arrive sweating and panting after struggling up six flights of stairs. If you have a big office you may have more stairs than you can even imagine climbing. You don’t have to climb them all at once. Try riding the lift to the one floor below where you going and climbing up one floor. You can use this trick even when you are going down! Remember: it’s your life
Change your approach to the exercise you do at work. Make it into a work out that benefits you instead of a chore that has to be done. Remember the benefits that exercise will give you. Start small. Each office workout is easy on its own. Don’t think you have to do it all at once! Start with one that works for you. When you see the benefits then you can add as much as you like.
These tips can’t replace proper exercise. It’s not a substitute for a real work out. These office work outs are the exercise equivalent of snacks. They help to keep you going but they are not enough on their own.
But if you add these extra exercises into your day you will get fitter and healthier almost without noticing. Don’t forget to work out properly. But change the small things and the big things become a lot easier.
