Are you an office potato?

If you work in an office, spend most of the day behind a desk, and work from behind your laptop or computer, odds are you sometimes forget about the time. Only to realise the only moving around you’ve done in hours is from your fingers typing important stuff. In that case I’m sorry to tell you, but congratulations, you’re an office potato.

Sitting kills

Moving around when working is often forgotten in the heat of the moment, which happens quite frequently if you’ve got a job that requires you to sit in front of a computer. That it’s bad for you might not come as a total surprise, but a lot of people are not fully aware of what it exactly does. Risks for earlier deaths, high cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar, slow metabolism and obesity in general are just a few of the downsides that long periods of sitting down bring with them. Not to mention what it does to your posture. Becoming aware of this and how it might affect your life is a first step towards actively improving your working standards.

Be creative

Unless you’ve got an office that has treadmills for desks, you’re pretty much condemned to creating your own hacks for not sitting still. If you’re one of the lucky ones who has access to a gym while at work, taking 30 minutes off to workout is a great way to stay healthy and lose some weight while you’re at it. But, considering this is somewhat of a luxury, there are other ways of remaining active when you’re working. The easiest solution? Instead of sitting down all day, set a reminder on your phone to walk around for 5 minutes of every hour. This gets the blood circulating and it burns calories. Some days are just too busy for ambitious plans like these, but there are other ways to ensure physical action. Walk around when you’re on the phone, take the stairs when possible, or take a 10-minute walk during your break.

Take a stand

Standing up while you’re working also provides a better blood flow and uses up a bit more calories than sitting down. When you’re standing, you are using your leg muscles, which is obviously better for you than to remain seated. Of course standing up for eight hours straight is a bit of a stretch, but switching on and off between sitting and standing might do you some good. Not all science agrees with this method however, so this one’s really up to you. If it works for you, why not do it?

Leave the car at home

Walking or riding your bike to work is a guaranteed way to increase activities. Of course you need to live close to your work in order to do this, but having a little exercise on the way to the bus, metro or train is a start. Parking a bit further from home and work forces you to walk more as well. This may cost you a few umbrellas, but the benefits easily outweigh the downsides.

Taking good care of your body is important if you want it to last. Making sure you get enough exercise and preventing yourself from sitting all day is a good start for desk jockeys. So take a few walks, stand up, and try to get every bit of exercise possible.

Watch our event page closely for office exercises. We do yoga, summer hockey, summer football, and more so you can play hard when working hard.