6 Ways to Sneak in Exercise at Work
Exercise takes time, and it's not always practical to take a chunk out of the work day to hit the gym, right?
My boyfriend takes regular trips to the conference room to do planks, and he's found other ways to burn a calorie around his office too. There is so much to learn from this guy!
Boise is a pretty active place full of bikers and hikers and climbers, but it's not always easy to spend an afternoon outside, especially if the boss expects you to work and you don't feel like getting fired. So...I started thinking about covert ways to sneak in exercise around the office, like arm stretches and butt/glute flexes. What else?
My boyfriend inspires me. He is the master of conference room plank, and spends several minutes a day propped up in there in a plank formation, timing himself. He's got headphones on so he can shut out those noisy co-workers, and not even notice if they watch. If it looks a little weird to those passing by, oh well! We can look weird at the gym just as easily.
He takes the stairs every chance he gets, and sometimes he takes a fifteen minute break for no other purpose than to go up and down the stairs. He wears a Fit Bit, and all of this planking and stair climbing scoots him toward his daily goals pretty quickly. If we're spending several hours at the office every day, we might as well make that time count toward health and fitness and not stress.
Here are some good ways to sneak in exercise at work:
-- Park far away from the office front door. Walking is good.
-- Take something to your car in the middle of the day. Again, walking is good.
-- Keep a hand gripper or a stress ball nearby and squeeze it as much as you can.
-- Pack your bag or briefcase with heavy things so you have to exert more energy carrying it. Then do some curls with it.
-- Do some planks in the conference room.
-- Take the stairs.
What else helps you burn a calorie at work? I've been known to balance my butt on a medicine ball to work my core, and get up and down on my tip toes to test my calves while I'm standing up at the mic.
The key in all this, is to do as much as you can, without breaking a sweat! We want to burn a calorie, but we don't want to have to re-apply make-up, or worse yet, smell like we've just been to the gym. So you probably won't see us running laps around the cubicle. In heels. Although that would be good for the calves.
It's amazing what we can accomplish when we're not on social media all day!