How to be active when you work in an office

michellen303

I'm sure a lot of you have seen in the news recently that working in an office is really bad for your health because it involves sitting down for long stretches of time.

I've seen some suggestions on how to incorporate physical activity into your working day, e.g. taking walks on lunch breaks, or having a 5 minute break every hour. Some of the advice I've seen in the news isn't that great. It's not always possible to have a 5 minute break every hour in some offices!

Does anyone have any better suggestions for how to be more active at work?

1jim

Always take the lift instead of the stairs, get up and walk over to the person you are about to email

TheAdmiralCS

Do you mean the stairs instead of lift?

1jim

I might [emoji6]

chump

BAN5HEE

Don't you have a gym near you? I go to the gym during my lunch break.
I tend to get 40 to 45 mins of gym time. It's more than enough for you to get a proper workout. If you can't push yourself in 40 mins to feel like you are going to throw up then you are just messing about anyway.
If you don't have one near you does your building have showers? You could always go for a run and shower at work.

Kailash

i would not say working in an office is really bad for your health, it's probably pretty safe!
but yeah i try get out for a walk around the block at lunch. there are a few gyms near me and i know guys that can get a quick workout squeezed in at lunch
use the stairs as mentioned. ultimately your fitness will have to be slotted in either before or after work though, or at weekends. even a half hour routine in the house is great now and again, lifting a few weights, pressups, situps, squats

jenam93

At work we have a couple of desks mods on trial where the monitor and keyboard/mouse can be raised up so rather than sitting all day you can spend some time sitting and sometime standing while working.  The person who installed them indicated the intention is not for you to stand all day, but if you do at least 10 minutes standing an hour you are in a better shape.

You should ask your work to get some in on trial.

Showoff

If I have to actually go and work from one of our offices, I always try and stand up when I'm on the phone.

I try not to walk around too much as that can annoy those around you, but it means you don't have to think about getting up and moving around. If the phone rings answer it and stand up, if you need to call someone dial the number and stand up.

Standing while on the phone also helps to make you sound more positive and projects more confidence.