By Dr. Ujjwal Shakya, MMA & Sports Rehab
Is your busy schedule getting in the way of taking care of your physical health? Are you too slammed at work and with outside activities to go to the gym?
Incorporating exercises into your workday can help boost brain power, improve your memory, and ultimately result in being a more efficient worker. Here are six simple ways you can include exercise into your busy schedule, and even burn calories at work.
Incorporating exercises into your workday can help boost brain power, improve your memory, and ultimately result in being a more efficient worker. Here are six simple ways you can include exercise into your busy schedule, and even burn calories at work.
- Take the Longest – or Hardest – Distance between Two Points: Speed is usually the name of the game in your busy life, but does parking close to work or driving to the metro really add value? Consider waking up a bit earlier to park farther away from the office or ride your bike to the metro stop, if it’s a nice day outside. When you’re at work, take the stairs instead of the elevator – unless you really are running late for a meeting!
- Pay for Your Lunch – in Footsteps: Skip the cafeteria in favor of a healthy eatery down the street or walk outside for 20 minutes before you return to your brown-bag lunch. If you’re working from home, walk to the corner grocer’s to gather the goods for lunch.
- Consider a Standing Desk: How do standing desks help? It’s amazing how much healthier simply standing in place is, compared to sitting. For one thing, you burn more calories. You’ll also hunch less, meaning that neck and shoulder pain is eliminated. Standing also boosts fitness in significant ways by keeping blood sugar more steady after a meal, and by encouraging more movement overall.
- Fool Yourself into Running Errands: Using a smaller glass for water — or mug for green tea — means that you have to return to the water cooler or kitchen more often to fulfill your daily hydration goals. Likewise, you can make going down the hall to borrow a stapler a separate trip from hiking upstairs to ask someone in HR about your vacation schedule. If our Fitbits have taught us anything, it’s that a hundred extra steps here and there really do add up over the course of the day!
- Trade in Your Chair for an Exercise Ball: Sitting on an exercise ball instead of a traditional office chair requires the user to increase trunk muscle activation. This increases core strength, improves posture, and decreases discomfort. Also, trading in a regular chair for a ball chair can increase your daily calorie burn!
- Don’t Put off Physical Therapy: The most obvious way physical therapy helps is by addressing the aches and pains that keep you from pursuing your active lifestyle. In addition, many physical therapy sessions are a workout in themselves, which helps you meet your weekly cardio and/or endurance goals. A physical therapist is also a great resource for giving you tips on tweaking your daily habits. He or She can go over what a normal day looks like for you and offer advice on how to make it a more active one.
So, now you can leave your excuses behind; there are ways to exercise on a busy schedule! Use these options at work and see a physical therapist to lead you to a happier and healthier lifestyle.
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