When you have a busy work (and social) schedule, keeping fit and staying in shape is often pushed down the priority list and seen to be ‘too time consuming’.
While maintaining a good work-life balance can be difficult, unless you have a physically demanding job, most of us will spend several hours a day sitting and sedentary, something which can have serious consequences on our health and productivity.
Looking for some fitness shortcuts? Well at reed.co.uk we don’t think work and working out necessarily need to be mutually exclusive. To help you squeeze some exercise into your executive lifestyle, here are our top five ways to keep fit in the workplace…
5. Make the most of your journey
Getting into work every day can feel like a struggle, with some people travelling from farther afield than others. Even for the most optimistic amongst us, when you make the same journey day in and day out, it doesn’t take long for the monotony to set in. To beat the boredom, why not make yours a more unconventional commute?
Running and cycling are the obvious choices, but there are many other options to consider. Tai-Chi on the train, body combat on the bus or even some toning on the tube. The possibilities are endless, as long as you don’t run out of alliterations.
And you needn’t miss out if you drive to work. Park in the furthest possible space, or better yet, the furthest possible car park, and watch the pounds fall off.
But for the sake of your colleagues, make sure your office is equipped with showers first…
4. Take the stairs
If you’re interested in keeping fit whilst still keeping a close eye on your finances, then this could be the perfect option for you. Instead of spending your day attempting to make idle chit-chat with Tim from Accounts while desperately pressing the elevator call button, skip the lift and try hitting the stairs. It’s especially effective if you work on the fifth floor or above.
As the old saying goes ‘There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs’. (Warning: Not applicable if you work on the ground floor).
3. Use your colleagues
Sometimes all you need to keep you trim is a little motivation, and what better motivation is there than peer pressure? It could be a few laps of the pool at lunchtime, a friendly game of squash on a Thursday evening, or an office sports team. It could even be an interpretative dance troop, or a cheeky bit of chess boxing.
It really doesn’t matter how you do it. It only matters that you do (inspirational mug/matching t-shirt combo on standby).
2. Equip yourself
To get fit, sometimes all you need are the right tools. While not all of us can be lucky/unlucky enough to work at a gym (delete where applicable), why not cut out the middle-man, and bring the gym to you?
Replace that dated desk chair with a trendy exercise ball, put a mini exercise bike under your workstation, or even add some handy free weights to your phone to really maximise your call time.
If budget and/or embarrassment restrict you, find an empty meeting room and go for the gold. Just make sure you check the schedule before you start shadowboxing. You don’t want to become another YouTube statistic.
1. (Dis)Incentivise
If your attempts to get your colleagues involved have been in vain, try challenging yourself instead. Punishments Incentives will vary from industry to industry, but the more creative you are, the better the results will be.
For example, if you work in telesales, do five star jumps every time you don’t make a sale, or stand up until you do. Going to make a cup of coffee? That’ll be 10 press-ups. On another cigarette break? Make it 100 (or better yet, quit smoking).
Let the race begin…
Honourable mentions: Going to the gym before work, going to the gym during work, going to the gym after work, body popping during your PowerPoint presentations.
Think there’s any we’ve missed out? Share them with us on twitter @reedcouk
