Finding time in your day before or after work to exercise can be hard and, if your home and work life doesn't allow you enough time to visit the gym it might be time to find ways to incorporate more physical activity into your workday. This is especially important if your workday consists of long periods of inactivity.

Studies show that long periods of sitting can increase the risk of physical and mental health issues in both the short and long term. With desk-based workers spending on average 75% of their workday sitting, SafeWork Australia has now recognised too much sitting as a workplace health and safety issue.

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Here are a few ways you can incorporate movement and exercise into your work day:

  1. Sit on a fitball. Okay it looks a bit silly, but it actually works! Maintaining good posture is a great form of exercise, it improves posture, increase blood flow, strengthens your core and helps improve balance. Give it a go!
  2. Make face to face visits. If you are back working in the office have face to face conversation with colleagues rather than sending an email or text message. Besides increasing the number of steps you walk each day, small incidental movements will make a huge difference in how you feel both physically and mentally at the end of the day.
  3. Take a few minutes every hour to stretch. You can still move even if you are seated all day. Click here for 10 simple exercises you can do sitting or standing at your desk.
  4. Stand up will you talk. Spending most of your day on the phone? Stand up while you talk! Not only is it a way to move more it can also help you focus, be more creative and even reduce anxiety.
  5. Sign up for a free program. BeUpStanding offers a free program that makes it easy to implement suitable, sustainable changes so that you and your staff or colleagues can stand up, sit less and move more throughout their work day.

These are just a few tips to help you move more throughout the day. Talk to your colleagues and see what other ideas you can come up with!

Sources:

Safe Work Australia

BeUpStanding