4 Amazing Tips To Get You Fit And Active At Your Desk Job

We all live in a fast paced environment, where fitting in time to exercise can feel like more of a chore than a reward to ourselves. We are expected to work later and be at their desk earlier for no real reward. The company's we work for have us tied round their little finger or so it can feel at times. Well it's time to take some of that time back and feel good about being at work again.

In this article I am not going to be able to solve all of the issues above but what I will able able to help you out by providing benefits of staying active in amongst our crazy lives.

We all look for the perfect work life balance. I am pretty sure the majority of people will not include sitting for several hours behind a computer a happy balance, more an evil necessity to accommodate your life outwith the office. Did you know sitting, being sedentary day in day out can have huge detrimental effects on your health. As you have probably read from my blog posts in the past, there are no such things as fitness shortcuts. I have a couple good ways that will put you in good stead to becoming more active.

The Commute

Now, the obvious choice to get active to and from work is to dust off those running shoes or pull the bike out and see if you can remember how to ride it. Distance really is no object on a Bike, sometimes it’s actually quicker to get from point A to point B with a bike than it is a car. I mean, How many times have you been played wacky races with a cyclist on the way to work? There’s you sitting in traffic and the next thing you know the cyclist you drove past a couple miles back is now weaving their way through the traffic to the front of whatever is holding you up. Join the cycling revolution! 

With so many running routes in and around the cities these days it’s actually really easy to get to and from work for most people. Ok, you don’t have to run the whole way there, it’s all about setting a goal and every week try and beat your distance. One day you’ll have ran all the way to the front door of your office without knowing it. Just remember to leave a gym bag at work with all the necessary toiletries. You don’t want leave a smell that donkey from Shrek would be proud of lurking over you.

Walking to work is another popular choice that can be over looked as a benefit but more a necessity. Let's think about it, walking to work allows you to get some alone time in, treat yourself to a morning coffee or tea from the local coffee shop and most importantly your brain has time to waken up before you sit behind your desk. So the next time you walk to work look at taking a different route to spice things up and enjoy it.

If running and cycling aren’t for you you always have skateboarding and scooters, know just me. Ok, time to get back on track. If you reside further afield and are not able to run, cycle, skate or scoot and you can drive well this is a great option too. To get those all important daily steps in why don’t you park at the furthest away space or even in the the next car park along if that’s an option. 

For those who don’t drive there’s the bus. This is my main mode of transport at the moment, it’s not that I can’t drive I just find that the bus has a little more flexible when getting around the city and it’s definitely quicker in during peak times. If you place of work is on a bus route or near a bus stop why don’t you think about getting off a couple stops early. Again, this is great for getting those daily steps in and if anything clearing the mind and waking you up before you sit at your desk.

Did you know sitting, being sedentary day in day out can have huge detrimental effects on your health."​

The Stairs.

Staying active is all about making choices. Most office blocks have lifts built in for easy access to all floors. However, Instead of waiting at the for the lift to bing, take the stairs. This is a great way to increase the heart rate, work those legs and get the blood pumping round the body.  You may or may not know that exercises release a chemical in the brain called endorphin's. This chemical has a positive effect on the brain so if you are finding it hard to concentrate on those excel spreadsheets, move away from the desk and walk a few flights of stairs to clear the mind.

Lunchtime Activities

Is a great opportunity to get active whilst at work. Most employers will allow an hour for lunch, for some of us less. However, we don’t always take the allocated duration. There’s too much work to do, no one else will do it, are probably some of the excuses you’ve used in the past. There must be hundreds of unused hours from people giving up their lunch break for work, well it’s time to take it back.

Set your mind right by saying to yourself that you will take the full hour to  reward yourself for all the hard work you have done in the morning.

There are various ways you can get active in your lunch break. Ask a colleague if they want to join you for a walk, run, or even start a fitness journey together. This may seem a bit cliche but it's better to start working out with a friend as it leaves you accountable and it’s more enjoyable than doing it by yourself.  By pushing each other through a workout it keeps the work ethic high and you push each other further than you would initially do if you were doing it yourself.
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These lunchtime workout don’t have to consume your whole lunch hour, twenty minutes is a perfect length to get the work completed and you still have forty minutes to get changed and have lunch. It seems like a winner to me.  

Struggling for ideas here’s a free workout for you to download to get you started.

Download Workout

If lunchtime workouts aren’t your thing why not try going for a walk. Removing yourself from the office environment can be one of the best decisions you make in your day. It declutters the mind, gets you out and about to areas you may not have known existed. ​

Focus > Believe > Achieve

Workplace Challenges

Setting workplace challenges is a great way not to only boost moral in the office but also to get more the office more active all round. I’ve come up with a couple suggestions that I think would be a fun way of incorporating an active mentality and getting the little competitive edge out of your colleagues.

If you work in a sales driven environment a good tip may be if you missed out on a sale you could do X amount of burpees. This would be a great way to ensure that you don’t miss out on a sale in the future as know one likes a burpee.

Everyone gets excited for a coffee break, but rather than just go get one. Every Time you want a coffee drop and give the office 10 pushups.

Likewise when you go to the photocopier you have to do sit ups for the duration you are waiting for the copier to finish it’s job

Cigarette breaks! Well you should probably assign one million burpees for this break, after all you are trying to help your colleges get active. One million burpees may seem counter productive in the office, but if you total all those little breaks throughout the day, weeks and months you'd be surprised the amount of time lost due to smoking breaks. By getting them doing the burpees and I can assure you they will stop smoking and make the office a more productive place in the long run.

What Next?

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