How To Stay Active With A Desk Job
Stay moving even when you are sitting a lot
This is how my week has been. It’s Wednesday morning as I write this and I’ve worked 24 of the past 48 hours, with probably close to 14 hours of sleep as well. Basically, I’ve had very little time to do much outside of work. After traveling for a week and being out of town, I’ve had a bit extra to get caught up on now that I’m back.
Last week while we were traveling we started listening to a book titled, “Primal Endurance” it talks all about how to train for endurance activities like marathons and triathlons. In that book Mr. Sisson talks about a problem that many high level endurance athletes still experience, which he dubbed, “active couch potato syndrome.”
Essentially this is classified as someone who is incredibly active, goes for a long run (10–15 miles) in a morning, but then goes to work and sits at a desk all day. That exercise is actually not as beneficial as you’d like to think. Sure it’s better than not doing the workout in the first place, but, checking off the box for workout doesn’t mean you can sit all day.
Our bodies like to be moving and changing. That’s why we get uncomfortable when we are in one position for too long. So what is one to do when they work at a desk and still want to feel good and be active while working inside looking at a screen?
First, variation is key. You need a good repertoire of things you can do to get you moving a bit more. We thrive on new scenarios and variation, our brains like it, and our bodies benefit from new hard things, so exercising in that way of course follows suit.
Lucky for me, I have a stand desk, so when I get tired of sitting and feel it, I’ll push a button and up my desk goes for me to stand for a while. Standing all day isn’t good for you either though, so it’s about the variation. Might seem annoying to your co-workers if you are going up and down all day, but then again, I have my own office so no co-workers to offend in my case :)
That’s the easiest most natural movement, you can get a stand desk here: https://www.standdesk.co/
If you already have a good desk that you like, and don’t want to replace your desk entirely you could look at something like a vari-desk. Check it out here: https://www.varidesk.com/
Continuous movement is key, and moving your fingers to type and your hands to click doesn’t count, sorry.
The next thing I try to do is add push-up, sit-ups and even un-weighted squats or stretching. I recently set a new goal to do 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups everyday as a minimum baseline activity level. It’s been extremely helpful thus far for me and keeps me feeling much better.
When I get to a good stopping point (45–75 block of work) I’ll take a quick break and bust out 20 of each. Gets you up and off your butt or your feet if you were standing and onto the floor. Gets your heart rate up a bit as well and is just enough to refresh your mind a bit.
I also work at home 90% of the time so it’s really easy to do that without it being weird, but hey if you are producing and getting results and not dying like your co-workers might be, then props to you…
Then if I ever get a chance to have a bit longer break, like at lunch I’ll go for a quick walk outside, flip flops or even barefoot if possible, just stand in the sun for a bit, drink some extra water and move around a bit more. It feels good.
So if you are stuck at a desk give a couple of these things a try. I’d be curious if there is anything else you are trying or doing now that’s made a noticeable difference? Comment below or send me a message.
Happy working
