Archive: March 2008

What's your excuse?

Keeping active with a desk job isn't as hard as you might think

By Jenny Quinn

We all have our excuses for not being physically active. The excuse I hear most often is that there’s not enough time in the day. Between working full-time and obligations outside of work, people struggle to make time for themselves and for exercise. Exacerbating that is the fact that the jobs we hold have evolved…we have moved away from being active at work or having physically demanding jobs, to jobs where we sit the majority of the time!

So are we doomed to be sedentary? Of course not. The human body is an amazing machine that was designed to move—not sit still!

Below are some simple suggestions of how to benefit your body (and your mind) by doing some activities right at your desk. You may look a little strange to your coworkers at first, but who cares…maybe it will catch on!

• First things first—you should sit with proper posture. Abs pulled up and in, shoulders down and back, feet on the floor and hip-width apart. Your head should be over your shoulders and not protruding forward like so many people do when sitting at a computer.
• To tone your backside at work, squeeze your gluteus maximus (that’s your butt, people!) and hold for ten seconds. Repeat for one minute, and do this three to four times a day. This will also help wake you up during that part of the day when you wish we could take naps at work!
• Leg extensions: Sit up (with your good posture) and extend one leg straight out in front of you, hold for five seconds and lower; then switch legs. Do each leg 12 times.
• Get up and march in place in your office. A great tool and constant reminder to be physically active is to buy a pedometer. This will track all of the steps you take in a day. Shoot for 10,000 steps as a goal!

Be creative. There are many things you can do to add physical activity throughout your day. Taking care of yourself should fall on the top of your list of daily to-do’s!