6 Ways to Stay Active at the Office!

Sitting at a desk is SO last year. Everyone knows that sitting for 8 hours straight is not healthy for you, so people from all different places are coming up with ideas to keep moving, or at least offer some alternatives to sitting in a chair all day.

Here are some ways to keep the blood flowing and your mind and body alert at the office!

1. One of the simplest and least costly ideas is to sit on an exercise ball instead of your chair. This is much better for your posture than a chair because it forces you to sit up straight in order to stay on the ball. It is also forms better to your bottom half. Buy one for yourself, and maybe the whole office will soon follow.

2. The treadmill-and-type approach is another option. If you can afford a treadmill for yourself, or for the whole office, like the one pictured above, you can actually walk while doing work. Obviously you can stay at a slow speed, but you can switch from incline to flat surface and stretch out your legs. If you walk for over an hour, you can even maybe cut out your gym time. Multitasking is the best kind of tasking!

3. Step tracker. Get one of these and try to reach 10,000 steps each day. This will motivate you to walk around and talk to people instead of text or email them from the other side of the room.

4. Use your time wisely. In the generation of multi-taskers, it isn’t too difficult to eat lunch and work at your desk at the same time. Then use your lunch break to do a quick HIIT workout to burn as many calories as possible in a short time frame. Then you don’t have to wake up early or worry about going after the gym, AND you won’t feel guilty!

5. Take the stairs. If you’re on a phone call that doesn’t require taking notes, say, maybe you’re just listening in on a conference call, stay active. Walk around the hallways and maybe even climb some stairs. It might not seem like the ideal workout, but it will get your blood flowing for the meantime and raise your energy level too!

6. Take a meeting outdoors. Need to have a weekly catch-up sesh with a co-worker? Or even a client? Take them on a walk outside instead of meeting in a café and eating and sitting some more. Vitamin D can do excellent things to your mood. Try it!

These are just some of the many ways you can get creative while at work. It’s never comfortable to sit in a char for 8 hours a day for 5 days straight! The dynamic in offices is changing with time, and employers are much more open to "healthy-lifestyle" environments. Who knows, maybe all of your coworkers will join in on a daily or weekly lunch break walk!