Striving to achieve work/life balance? Well, you’re not alone. Countless people are struggling everyday to accomplish that which most of us view as a feat. If you don’t have time to go to the gym, you can do it at the office. Yup, you heard me right.
Here’s a list inspired by “A Workout at Work?” by Bonnie Berkowitz and Laura Stanton.
1. March in place. Find a suitable room to begin your office fitness regimen. Make sure that no one and nothing will get in your way. Start marching. Do two sets, 12 counts per set. Lift your knee as high as you can.
2. Hands to heaven. While alternately raising your arms to the ceiling for about 15 seconds, do some side-steps at the same time to get your heart pumping. Rest for about 10 seconds then do four sets more.
3. Do some twists. Standing up, feet apart, twist to your left as far as you're comfortable with and then slowly go back to the center. Do the same with your right. That's one count. The key here is for you to keep things slow and deliberate to make it as effective as can be.
(You might also want to read: Office Exercises: Get Fit at Work)
4. Pump it up! Raise your left knee as high as you can and let it touch your right elbow as you do so. Do the with the other knee and elbow. Two sets with 20 repetitions per set.
5. Jab your way to fitness. For a mere 3 rounds (1 minute per round), imagine you're the Pacman practicing in the ring. Rest for about 15 seconds in between rounds.
6. Do some push-ups. You can do this on the floor or you can put your hands on your desk. Do two sets, ten repetitions per set. You can rest for about 30 seconds in-between sets.
7. Walk around the floor of your building. Walk as fast as you can while maintaining proper body posture -- stomach in, chest-out, chin-up, with your back straight. A 10-minute intensive walk will do.
(Looking for a new exercise to try? Why not go for pilates?)
8. Do bicep curls using water bottles. You can do this exercise while sitting down. With your pair of 500ml water bottles, do some old-school curls. Holding both bottles at the side of your hips, raise the bottle on your left first until it's leveled up to your left shoulder. As you bring the left bottle down back to starting position, raise the bottle on your right. That's one count. Keep at this until you reach 12 counts, then rest for about a minute and then repeat the process.
9. Extend your legs. Sitting down with your back straight, gently lift your right leg until it's parallel to the floor. Hold that position for about 5 seconds. Then gently go back to starting position. Repeat with the left leg. Remember to tightly hold your abdominal muscles in place when you do this exercise.
10. Do the running man. If you don't know what the running man is, then you don't know MC Hammer. Do this and keep at it for 60 seconds, rest for about 30 seconds, then do it again.
11. Jump-jack it up! Who doesn't know how to do jumping-jacks? Just remember to inhale and exhale properly so you can modulate your breathing. Give yourself 2 sets of 20 seconds, with half a minute of rest in between sets.
(Calm your senses and your system after a work out with some tea. Here are a few tea trivia.)
12. Use the stairs. If everything else seems so challenging for you to do, you can opt to just go up and down the stairs of your office building.
Have other office exercises you'd like to share? Feel free to leave your comments below.
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