Stay Fit, Healthy And Active At Work!

In today’s busy world hardly people take out time for themselves and this has been one of the most discussed problems faced by numerous people around the globe. People who work sitting for long hours on the office desk, it gets very difficult for them to balance their work and life. Long hours of sitting and working makes our body restless, worsen our health and it even spoils our body figure and posture.

A scientific study shows that sitting and working for long hours is as harmful as smoking. It’s a very essential to exercise for minimum 30 minutes per day. Problem is that many people aren’t able to meet this minimum required targeted time for exercising to keep their body fit and active for long.

We have presented here some tried and tested easy ways to stay fit and active especially in the boring environment at work:

1. Walk To Your Workstation

• If the distance between your workstation and home is short, it’s preferable for you to use your foot.
• Walking is also good for keeping yourself fit.
• A Cycle is the best alternative for using a two-wheeler to cover a not so far distance.
• If you drive to work make sure you park your car farther in the parking in order to walk more to reach your workplace.
• Try Using Public Transport instead of Self-Driving as it involves more physical movement.

2. Use Stairs

• Skip Using Elevator or Escalator. Instead, opt to use the stairs in order to help your body stay active. Health conscious people often take stairs instead of the lift.
• Use Stairs : In case your office is on higher floors like the tenth floor or more, you can get out of the lift a few floors before and then use the stairs.
• Stand More : Spend more time standing in front of your desk and working rather than sitting for a long duration. Standing will release you from being restless and will help in the proper flow of blood throughout your body.

3. Avoid Sitting For Long

After trying it all, still you find no scope to introduce workout session at the office after work. Do not lose hope. You can still try different formulas in order to stay fit even at work. Now it is very essential to take breaks from your seat or desk. Do not sit for a longer duration, in front of your desk or in your cabin.

• After every 15 minutes of work you can try stand up from your seat and take a walk for a minute or two in your office corridor itself, or you can even climb stairs of just one floor up and down and back to your desk again.
• Walk & Talk : You can even discuss project or work ideas with a colleague while taking a walk.
• Go To Other's Seat Instead of Calling : Walk over to someone's desk at work rather than calling them on the phone or sending an email.

These types of small breaks will help you manage your waist size and will also keep you far away from many heart problems too.

4. Stay Away From Chocolates

• Munch on salads or fruits when you feel hungry at odd times or in between meals. Strictly avoid munching chocolates.
• Drink lots of water. It’s always advisable to carry a bottle of normal or lukewarm water along with you outdoors.
• Avoid Aerated Drinks : During summers specially, replace aerated drinks with healthy and delicious detox water which you can carry to your work.
• Detox water help you burn fat, helps your body get rid of harmful toxins, manages your weight and helps you look and feel healthier.
• Avoid having tea or coffee frequently during working hours, you can replace it with any fresh fruit drink.
• Fresh Fruit Drinks : Nowadays mostly the fitness conscious people prefer thirst quenching and delicious detox water of different flavor which you can make at home along with fresh fruits drink.

5. Homemade Lunch

Carry your homemade lunch/Tiffin at work. Strictly avoid visiting office canteen or restaurants.

• Lunch From Home : At home, jot down some healthy, nutritious lunch recipes which you can prepare easily in the morning and carry to your workplace.
• Right Diet : In order to stay healthy and fit opt for recipes that are low in calorie count, fat but high in protein and nutrition. Spinach, oatmeal, barley, kale, broccoli, quinoa, lentils, white beans, apples, citrus fruit are some veggies and fruits that are high in nutrition. Make sure to fulfill all the nutrition that is required by your body in a plate at lunch.
• Water before Lunch : You can drink a glass of water few minutes before your lunch to decrease your hunger level. It is very true that drinking plenty of water helps in lowering your hunger level and helps to maintain required calorie count in your body.
• Choose Healthier Options : In case you visit office canteen, or restaurant sometimes with your co-workers keep in mind to order healthy food like green salad, mix fruit salad along with mix vegetable soup or tomato soup, sandwiches, etc.
• What To Avoid In Your Lunch? To maintain your body figure and health it’s essential to stay away from salt, sugar, white rice, full fat milk, etc.
• What To Include In Your Lunch? Add brown rice, double toned milk, lots of fresh fruits and veggies to your diet.
• Do not over eat your meal.
• After Meal Walk : After finishing your meal take a walk around your office campus or if your office has its own park. You can use a pedometer to count your steps.

6. Exercise at Desk

Sitting for long hours can cause you back pain, obesity and pain in other body parts. Move your body more and don’t let boredom overcome you!

• Stretch Out :

  • Hands & Legs Stretching : Move your hands and your foot straight out, hold for 5-10 seconds. Bring to normal posture again.

  • Twist it Up : Hold handles of your chair with your hands to keep your lower part of body straight and twist your upper half on left side and repeat for right side too.

• Butt Kicks : Stand straight. Bend knees of one leg, standing on one leg, kick your butt with your other foot.

• Desk Pushups : The best exercise which can be done at any place and any time is none other than pushups. You can make use of walls or work desk to do pushups.

• Butt Squeezing : While sitting, even if many people surround you, you can do this quick butt squeezing to release tension from continuous sitting posture. Squeez your butts while sitting and release after 10-15 seconds.

Tip : Try out different yoga poses at tea time!

Tip : Listen to trance or electro music for quickly freshening up your mind.

• Utkatasana : (Invisible Chair Yoga Posture)

  • Stand Straight

  • Breath in & Lift Your arms straight.

  • Breath out & Bend your knees.

  • Imagine yourself sitting in an Invisible Chair.

  • Try making your back straight and making 90 degrees with your thighs.

  • Move your belly inwards and up.

  • Keep the pose for about 10 pair of Breath in and breath out.

  • At the end, exhale lowering your hands and straighten your leg.

• Move Your Shoulders In Round Motion. Close your eyes to feel relaxed and remove any tension in your body.

• Head Movements :

  • Close Your Eyes.

  • Move your head first towards your right shoulder.

  • Next, Move your head towards your left shoulder.

  • Next, Move your head from left to right shoulder in circular motion.

  • Move back your head from right to left shoulder.

  • Next try to look behind yourself bending your head towards extreme right followed by looking on extreme left side.

• Lift Heavy Things on Desk :

You can lift heavy things present on your desk like Books, water bottle etc. using both of your hands. Move the object above your head. Then Move it towards your back, feeling the heaviness in your spine. Next, move the heavy object in front of you.

• The Namaste Pose :

  • Close Your Eyes.

  • Hold your hands together in “Namaste Pose”.

  • Take a deep breath in.

  • Fill your lungs and slowly breath out.

  • Say “Om” Word as you breath out.

  • Repeat the process of deep breathing to freshen yourself up.

• Pencil Balance :

  • Ear : Try to balance a Pencil/Pen Behind Your Ears without making it to fall down. You have to avoid using your hands throughout the process.

  • Facial Exercise : Try to balance a Pencil/Pen Over Your Lips without making it to fall down. You have to avoid using your hands throughout the process.

• Shoulder Balance : Try to balance a Pencil/Pen between your head and shoulders without making it to fall down. You have to avoid using your hands throughout the process.

7. Take Breaks!

• Music Break : Fill yourself with instant energy listening to music of your choice!
• Take Tea Time Break : Have Green Tea during tea time breaks to help you stay healthy.

8. Motivate Your Co-Workers To Stay Fit

Encourage and motivate your co-workers towards fitness even if they aren’t getting time to exercise due to busy schedule.

• You can share your personal routine of fitness at work and be an inspiration for them by keeping yourself fit.
• Indulge in a fitness awareness debate or organize a program for it that will help you in spreading awareness to a large group at once.
• You can also organize weekly match or any sport competition and make teams among your co-workers. This way is the most interesting and easy step towards fitness at work.
• There is also an option to appoint a fitness trainer (yoga/workout/zumba trainer), if all the co-workers agrees for an hour of workout session after work in the evening. You can also have different sessions weekly for a change and keep life interesting.

The study of science proves that regular exercise can help in keeping a human body free from many diseases along with keeping fit, active and healthy which consequently helps one to enjoy a long life journey. Though some exercises at work won’t help in maintaining the body figure and fitness entirely but it’s a great effort towards physical exercise in a way.