Looking for tips on how to get more exercise at work?  This post is for you. Here are 11 ways to get more activity during your workday.

Are you sitting most of your workday?  You may have heard, “Sitting is the new smoking.”  With 1 in 4 Americans in the workforce living a sedentary lifestyle, our lack of movement each day has become significant. 

Is sitting really that bad?

The cost of sitting may contribute to…

• Weight gain
• Tight hip flexors
• Tight shoulders leading to upper back and neck pain 
• Low back pain
• Lethargic behavior (couch potato-ness)
• Poor aerobic fitness (getting winded easily)
• Increase risk of metabolic syndrome
• Needing regular pain medication

AKA, our nation of “butt in seat” is making you miserable.

The benefits of increasing your activity during the day are simple.

You will…

• Feel refreshed 
• Feel awake 
• Be more productive
• Be in a better mood
• Have better ideas (I love outside walking meetings or conference calls)
• Eat less
• Reduce risk of metabolic syndrome or pre-diabetes

Not everyone has the time (or desire) to get to the gym or a fitness class.  I get it, going to the gym is time consuming, sometimes expensive, and let’s face it, working out is hard!  

If you’re not a gym-person, that’s okay.  There are still plenty of ways to get moving each day.  I’m here to specifically outline how to get more exercise at work.  Yes! At work! Think it’s impossible? Think again. I’ve done all of these myself so I personally attest they all work if you’re willing.  

So without further ado, here are…

11 ways to get active during your work day

• Stand up desk. Standing up during the day burns more calories than sitting. To figure out just how many more calories you burn check out this calculator. 

• Sit on a ball. Sitting on a ball requires you to use your core and legs to stabilize. It may not feel like much but just like standing it will add up. I also sit on a ball when I need to stay alert. Bouncing on the ball and using those stabilizing muscles help beat the 2pm burn out and combat sleepiness. 

• Take regular walks. The power of walking is so underrated.  Humans used to walk everywhere before the invention of automobiles and transportation. A 30 minute walk can burn almost 100 calories, elevate your heart rate and can increase your aerobic capacity.  You can absolutely walk yourself skinny. The great thing about walking is how you can multitask! You burn calories, get fresh air, while enjoying an audiobook, music, or your favorite podcast as you step along. Getting fresh air and sunlight is all part of a healthy lifestyle which improves your overall mood. Ever wonder why dogs or cats like to sit in the sun?  Animals need sunlight and it just feels good. Do yourself and your dog a favor and take a walk outside every day. Aim for 10000 – 12000 steps per day for best results. 
• Take the stairs.  If you have no more than a couple flights to get up to, opt for stairs > elevator.  The stairs might seem like nothing but it adds up over a year. If it takes you 30 seconds to walk up or down the stairs and you do that just twice a day (up to your desk, down to your car), over the course of a year you’ve just worked out over 4 hours without even trying.  
• Create a daily challenge.  For example, every hour, walk around the building of your company.  If that’s too big (or small) then find a block or sidewalk that takes 5 minutes to walk to and back.  Set yourself a goal to move a certain number of times per day. 
• Get a fitness tracker. I’m counting down the days until Christmas because this is at the top of my list. Having a fitness tracker helps keep you accountable to getting activity during the day. Most will even count your steps for you which is great for hitting your step goals. 

• Create a calendar reminder to move. Do you live and die by Outlook?  Yea me too. So add in an activity reminder a few times a day.  Schedule walks, stretching, standing, or your daily challenge (see above). 
• Stretch at your desk.  Take some time to move around.  Open your chest by clasping your hands behind your back and reaching your knuckles toward the floor, stand up and reach overhead, then to the left and right, twist side to side, and forward fold your torso over your legs if you don’t think people will stare!  I promise you’ll feel better.  
• Take walking conference calls.  This is a great way to multitask your work and activity.  Grab a pair of headphones to go hands free and take your calls outside or on a treadmill.  
• Resistance band exercises.  Keep a pair of resistance bands in your desk to pull out during moments you need to move your body.  You can make these part of a daily challenge, your hourly movement instead of walking or other outdoor activity. 
• Breathing exercises.  If you can’t get up to move, at least practice healthy breathing.  Yes there are right and wrong ways to breathe. Noses are meant for breathing, mouths are meant for eating.  Breathe through your nose at all times, breathe into your deep core (think of expanding your belly button and low back instead of your upper chest), and make each breath long and slow.  For more details, check out the book The Oxygen Advantage.

And then when you get home you’ll want to do this yoga routine to Undo the Effects of Sitting all Day. 

And that is how to get more exercise at work!  Whether you work at home, in bad weather areas, or are glued to your desk for an extended time, there are options to get moving during your day.  

To get started, set a goal for yourself.  

If you currently aren’t walking at all, say you set out to walk 30 minutes a day at work.  That can mean two 15 minute walks, short 5 minute walks every hour or two, or all 30 minutes at once.  

But maybe you get really busy and you don’t hit that every day. 

Here’s the secret, even just going for better will make a difference.  

For example, maybe you only hit the walking goal 50% of the time.  If you hit it 100% that would be 150 minutes of walking per week, which equates to 500 calories burned.  So if you only hit your walking goal 50% of the time, you’d effectively walk for 75 minutes a week, or 250 calories burned.  

Now think about that over the course of a month or a year…  Hitting your goal only 50% of the time means an extra 1000 calories burned in a month or 12,000 calories in a year.  That means you would have lost almost 3.5 pounds in a year from just hitting your goal 50% of the time.  

Not too shabby for doing better.

The most important thing is to take action, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, consistently over time.  Just simply doing better than your before (no activity) will still yield results.  These small changes build on each other and before you know it, you’ll create a healthy habit.  

You’ll know exactly how to get more exercise at work.  

You might start to hear yourself say, “I can’t miss out on my walk/stretch/breathing exercises or I’ll go stir crazy.”  

Or your daily challenge might start to catch on.  Others might start asking, “I noticed you do ___ every hour, what’s that all about?”  You tell them how your simple exercise at work routine has helped you lose weight without even trying (or that’s how it feels anyway).  They might be so intrigued, you create a group daily challenge at work to help others get moving.    

The possibilities are endless but the fact remains the same, taking a small action (like the 11 listed above) every day, is how you get more exercise a work.