Ways To Exercise At Work Without Being Too Obvious

Sitting at a desk is the plague of this century, and it is taking its toll on our bodies. If you have a desk job, you feel the physical effects very strongly even after your first weeks. Here are a few ways in which you can exercise at work without being too obvious, so as to move your body consistently throughout the day and to make sure that your sedentary lifestyle can be overcome.

How To Exercise At Work ?

1. Step It Up!

Especially if you work in an office building (corporations, anyone?) you can exercise at work by choosing the stairs instead of the elevator. It gets your heart rate up, and unless you’re climbing a hundred stories you won’t actually break a sweat. You can climb them slowly if you have the time, and that way you get a bit of exercise at work while also keeping your body cool enough for your office suit to look nice when you’re done.

2. Walk It Out

Surely you know the importance of taking regular breaks. Well if you’re a non-smoker, that’s sometimes something that slips out of your mind, and you find it’s lunch time and you haven’t gotten out of your chair all morning. Make an active effort to prevent this and use it as an opportunity to exercise at work. During your smaller breaks walk to the water fountain and have a chat with your colleagues. On your lunch break you can go for a stroll if the weather permits, and you can even take a colleague with you for company- and for the added bonus that you’re both exercising at work.

3. Raise Those Calves

If you have something boring to do, like printing a lot of pages, and you just have to stand somewhere, you can use this opportunity to exercise at work. Calf raises are a great exercise that can be done pretty much anywhere, and they don’t look odd (they’re barely noticeable). So give this exercise a try next time you’re getting bored next to the printer, or when you wait for the elevator before a meeting. If you want to make it really challenging, you can hold a paper ream in each hand as you raise your calves.

4. The Desk Chair Move

If you’re lucky enough to have a desk chair that swivels, you can try to exercise at work by going side to side with it. This works your oblique muscles, and feels pretty fun to do. Sit upright and with your feet hovering over the floor. Then hold the edge of your desk with your thumb and fingers, and use your abdominal muscles to swivel the chair from side to side. Do this exercise for about 20 seconds, then take a break, and try it again a minute later. Get some work done in between!

How do you stay active when you are working at a desk job? Share your tricks on how to exercise at work in the comments section.