Day 59: Survival Strategies for the Office Worker

If you're like me you sit behind a desk for most of the day and only rarely get up. Having your body in a sedentary position most of the day can have some adverse effects on your health, though. It can make you physically tired. When my body is sitting in a chair all day long and I'm staring at a computer screen, I'm worn out by the end of the day. I need to engage my body more so it can be ready to move and exercise and be active when my desk time is over for the day. You can also become weaker by sitting at your desk, unless you are proactive about making sure you're engaging those muscles. Having a sedentary job can additionally cause you to gain weight. Obviously, if you're consuming more calories than you spend in a day, you're going to pack on the pounds.

Throughout the month of May I'm going to do a little experiment. I'm going to get up and move around for the last 10 minutes of every hour and see how that affects my overall well-being. Here's what I plan to do:

Stretch - Just simply standing up and stretching your neck, shoulders, back, arms, legs and wrists can help to liven you up during a mid-afternoon slump.

Wall Push-Ups - Now, you need to know that my office is surrounded on 3 sides by windows. So EVERYONE will be able to see what I'm doing. I may have to try out these exercises in my office bathroom if I start to feel self-conscious. I found these step-by-step instructions for wall push-ups on eHow.com.

1. Stand approximately 2 feet away from the wall keeping your feet together. If you stand farther away, you will have to bend and reach too far creating poor posture and the possibility of pulling muscles in your thighs and calves. Standing too close to the wall will not allow you to extend your arms far enough to create a good workout.
2. Place your hands flat on the wall. You arms should be straight out at shoulder height and slightly more than shoulder width apart from each other.
3. Lean towards the wall while keeping your elbows tucked in until your nose is almost touching the wall. Hold this position and focus on your posture before finishing the push-up. You should feel a slight stretching in your calf muscles and in your upper chest. Check to ensure that your body is in a straight line all the way from head to toe.
4. Return to your starting position slowly. Continue practicing wall push-ups until you can comfortably do 20 to 25 of them at one time.
5. To make a wall push-up more difficult to do, practice moving your hands together until they are touching. This will require more upper arm strength to maintain correct positioning.
6. Prevent injury doing push-ups by maintaining correct alignment in your body. Injuries can occur in your elbows, neck and lower back if you bend or arch your back while exercising.

Squats - You can either do this exercise at your chair, by simply bending down to sit (but don't sit down all the way) and standing up several times, or you can perform a traditional squat by standing, then bending at the knees, keeping your back straight.

Arms - You don't need dumbbells to get a good arm workout. Just grab something on your desk at a weight that's challenging, but not uncomfortable for you. And do bicep curls, tricep extensions, shoulder lifts, and any other arm exercises you can think of.

Core - I really need to work harder on engaging my core in my workday. So I'm going to focus on having better posture and doing some of the exercises my cousin Brooke told me about. I sit in my chair and hold my legs parallel to the ground for several minutes at a time. And I will also sit in my chair and hold my feet a few inches off the ground for several minutes at a time. This will strengthen my abdominal muscles and help me to better stabilize myself for better posture and abs (I haven't seen them yet, but I know they're hiding in my belly somewhere). I've heard of a lot of people using stability balls in place of their regular office chairs while they're at work. Obviously, you probably wouldn't want to sit on a ball for the entire day. But maybe half an hour at a time or so. I'm unfortunately unable to do this since there are a lot of metal scraps on my office floor. I wouldn't want to be sitting on the ball and have it pop all of a sudden!

Calf Raises - Something I often try to do while I'm climbing stairs or just walking around the office is calf raises. You simply take normal strides and steps, but with each step you raise up on your toes to give your calf muscles a little squeeze. This is a great workout for climbing stairs, but it also works for just walking around on a level surface. You may look a little funny but you'll have the last laugh when your calves are the shapliest ones in the office!

Some other suggestions are to go for a walk during your lunch break, try to exercise instead of hitting the vending machines or the coffee pot on your breaks, and take the stairs instead of the elevator.

What workday workout tips can you share? Do you plan to employ any of these into your normal routine?