Movement at Work Blog Three: Simple methods to move more throughout your day!
We could all probably be more active throughout the work day. As we have seen in our first article of this series, the effects of sitting on your health are very negative so the more we can move the better!
In this article we will bring you simple and effective methods of getting more activity into your working day.
1) Walk / Cycle to work or park further away
A very simple change that can be made is to walk or cycle into work. That way if you have a busy schedule and work means you might not be able to get to the gym that day you don’t have to feel guilty as you will have had a cycle to and from work increasing your activity levels each day!
Now, we know that this may not be possible for everyone as their commute is a bit further. However, you can still increase your activity if you drive to work! Try parking further away from your office building. This way you get the extra activity from having to walk a bit further to the office increasing your number of steps for the day!
2) Take walking meetings
Do all your meetings absolutely have to be in the meeting room? Are there a few that could be taken outside where you can walk and talk? Taking your meetings on the road allows you to be up and about as opposed to sitting down once again in a meeting room. Studies show it isn’t just your physical health that will benefit from ideas such as this. Walking meetings have shown to boost creativity and productivity within the meeting!
3) Set an alarm / timer to get up and move
We understand that people have a lot of work and it all needs to be done, however, what can happen is we spend hours on end glued to our computers without moving. Setting a regular alarm, or timer to remind you to get up and move is a great way to avoid prolonged sitting. Why not perform some of the exercises we gave you in our last article?
4) Set up an office sport / fitness lunch hour / office fitness challenge
It doesn’t just have to be a lunch hour! Why not get the whole office involved and set up a group activity or sport such as lunch time hand ball or office fitness session at Team Breakthrough where the whole office is involved, getting up and about and moving and exercising together! Or how about ask one of our PT’s to set a monthly office challenge? Not only will everyone’s health improve but studies show that employee productivity can sky rocket.
5) Try a standing desk
This will prevent those long hours sat hunched over a desk and computer! It will help you to concentrate on your posture and improve it as well!
In Conclusion
Over the last three weeks we have gone through the negative effects of prolonged sitting on your posture, eight simple exercises to do at work and this week simple methods to get more movement into your day at work. The main point to stress from today, is to not look at movement at work as one period of time over the day rather accumulating lots of periods of movement throughout the day, each day which will in turn add up across the week.
Hopefully you can take something away from the last three weeks and feel the benefits of moving more at work!
Jack Coxall