Exercise at Your Desk!

So since I work in an office environment, I am always trying to think of ways that I can fit in some sort of exercise during the day. I sit at a desk for most of my 8 hour day and that is extremely counterproductive to my goal of weight loss. You can’t very well lose any weight by just sitting around. While you do burn calories by just being alive, it’s not enough to lose weight. I had already implemented a few things on my own, which you will see below.

1. I take the stairs when I can. Elevators are only used if I’m in a super hurry.
2. I try to get up and walk around every hour. Even if it’s only to the bathroom and back. Just so I get some  sort of full body movement on an hourly basis.
3. I fidget (shaking my leg, tapping my foot, etc). It’s a proven fact that people who fidget burn more calories than people who don’t. Makes sense to me since movement causes you to burn calories!
4. I keep gum and sugar free hard candies at my desk. This helps me keep from munching on vending machine treats when I get bored and want to snack on something.
5. Go to the bathroom on another floor and take the stairs to get there!

 I didn’t feel like this was quite enough, so I did a little Googling to see if there were other ideas out there for how to fit in exercise at work. Turns out there is a ton of information out there, so I thought I would share it with you guys! I opted for the more discreet exercises. There were suggestions for doing 60 seconds of running in place and jumping jacks, stuff like that. I don’t know about you, but I’m not trying to draw all that attention to myself. Not to mention, I don’t want to sound like a lion is chasing me if my phone rings.

1. To step up my stair routine, it is suggested that you should take the stairs 5-7 times a day.
2. While seated, lift one leg off the floor and extend it out straight. Hold for a few seconds and then switch. Do this 15 times per leg.
3. Use your chair arms to lift your bottom off the chair and hold for a few seconds. Slowly lower yourself back down and repeat 15 times.
4. Stretch! Hold your arms over your head for a while, do neck rolls, stretch out your legs.
5. Butt clenches. Pretty self-explanatory.
6. Stand up for a few minutes and work instead of sitting.
7. Wear a pedometer. Ideally you should walk 10000 steps per day. You’d be surprised at how little you actually walk around once you wear one of these for a day or two.
8. Instead of emailing or calling a coworker, get up and walk to their cube to say what you need to say. If you can think of any other ideas of how to stay active in an office environment, please feel free to share!