Finding ways to exercise in an office setting

        You want to be healthy. You want to engage in some type of fitness or exercise, but you find much of your time is spent in an office or cubicle, surrounded by fluorescent lighting.  It doesn’t help when you realize the majority of your day is spent sitting on your rear-end.  You want to exercise before getting to the office, but mornings are full of car-rider lines, school drop-offs, grabbing breakfast on the way or running that quick errand.  And once the workday is over, you’re too tired to fit in fitness before heading home.  What to do?

            Let me make a few suggestions that you are welcome to use while at work. I always maintain that doing something is better than doing nothing in regards to fitness.

            Set an alarm on your email account on your computer or phone to go off every 45 minutes. When it beeps, stand up out of your chair and sit down, with your rear barely hitting the chair.  Do this 10 times in a row.  If you do this throughout the day, your blood pumps better and you’ve done several sets of the squat exercise, which is one of the best overall leg exercises.

            Whenever you go for coffee or to refill your water bottle, or to go to the bathroom or get something from the supply room — take the long route.  Take an extra lap or two.  If at all possible, walk around (that means constantly moving, not stopping every 10 feet to chat with a co-worker) for at least five minutes.  Every little bit helps. This walking can help refresh your brain as more oxygen gets moving in your body.

            Before you go to lunch and right after you get back from lunch, do this simple exercise.  Find a wall and take 1-2 steps back and then lean toward the wall with your palms placed on the wall.  Do 8-10 of these modified pushups, while standing.

            Clearly, parking farther from your building and climbing the stairs instead of taking the elevator are a couple of easy ways to fit in fitness at your workplace.

Other ways are doing toe raises while seated at your desk, pressing up on the balls of your feet 10-12 times each hour; standing and moving around while talking on the phone; and reaching both hands overhead in a full body stretch several times throughout the day.  Try to pair the exercise or movement with something you already do each day, as I’ve given examples of above.  That way, it’s attached to something that is already habitual.

            When you leave each day, take a few laps around the parking lot before getting into your car.  If you are carrying a bag of some kind, do 8-10 bicep curls with it as you walk, then switch arms.  Any kind of movement is better than not doing anything at all!  If you’ve found creative ways to exercise or to fit in fitness to your day, let me hear from you!

 Have you seen John’s latest book, “Where Do You See God?”  Take a peek, or purchase, at www.blurb.com/bookstore You can reach John at john.a.page@ngumc.net