Staying Active in the Workplace
Posted on: February 7, 2013Categories: LiveWell 24/7You don’t need to change clothes or look silly doing office exercises to stay active throughout your day at work. Even if you spend most of your time behind a desk, there are ways you can incorporate some physical activity into your daily office routine. The following are a few ideas:
1. Don’t Spend Your Entire Lunch Break Sitting Down: Use half of your allotted time to eat and use the other half to squeeze in some active time. Walking outside around your building or climbing the stairs will benefit you more than spending those extra minutes at your desk. Not only will your body thank you, but your mind will be refreshed.
2. Don’t Save Yourself Trips: Split up your office errands to encourage activity throughout the day. Instead of bringing everything to the office upstairs all at once, split it up into two or three trips. Rather than shooting an e-mail to your co-worker down the hallway, walk over to his or her desk. Any excuse you can find to break away from your desk and move is a good way to stay active during your work day.
3. Take the Stairs: Once you start this habit, it will be hard to break. Take the stairs up to your floor at the beginning of each day. If you work on a very high floor, take the elevator to a few floors below and then begin climbing the stairs to your office. Opting to climb an extra three to five sets of stairs a day instead of taking the elevator can burn enough calories in a year to negate the average adult’s yearly one- to two-pounds weight gain, according to Prevention.com
4. Perfect Your Posture: How your workstation is set up can cause everything from headaches to tendinitis according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety & Health Administration. Make sure your keyboard and mouse are at a height and distance from your body that allows you to keep your wrists straight and your elbows tight by your side. You want to be able to keep your neck straight as well, so make sure your screen is near eye-level.
5. Say Goodbye to Your Chair: Replace your chair with a fitness ball. Just make sure the ball is tall enough to keep your posture in line with the tips above. Sitting on the unstable ball will engage your core muscles all day long. Desks, such as the Ergo Desktop, are now available that are adjustable to be used in the sitting or standing position.
6. Stretch: You don’t need to run three miles during your lunch break to combat the effects of sitting too much, sedentary time is best mitigated by lots of frequent movement, even if its only done for brief periods of time. Stretching at your desk is one of the easiest ways to do this. Lift both arms above your head or roll your head from shoulder to shoulder. There are many easy yoga poses you can do at your desk that will both release tension in your neck and back, as well as ease some of the day’s stress.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
http://www.fitday.com
share:
