Positive Tip #5: Take a walk, take the stairs

For 10-11 hours a day, I work in a typical cubicle with a seat that isn’t exactly the most comfortable thing in the world. Most of the day I stare at a computer and do my programming diligently. I really don’t have that many qualms with the situation, but I don’t think it really helps too much health-wise. Think about it, if you have an office job, you tend to sit for extended periods of time and aren’t particularly active (unless you have a particularly interesting conference call).

I’ve found that a great way to get out of your chair during the day and get a bit of exercise in you is to take a relaxing walk every few hours. You really don’t have to go that far or have a particular destination in mind. Get up from your chair, get your endorphins kicking and watch your stress level drop. Use the walk to clear your head of the current problem at hand. Use it as a social opportunity to get a cup of coffee with your co-worker. Use it as an opportunity to have some kind of activity during the day.

In one of our offices, they run a program where you can record the amount of steps you take and get a small reward for doing so. They measure this through a pedometer. I actually think that’s a brilliant idea and you’ll quickly realize just how many steps you can knock out in a day from just walking around your building a couple of times or walking around the floor.

Another easy exercise opportunity is to take the stairs whenever possible. When I was working in Schaumburg, there were times that I found myself just taking the elevator to my floor. My floor was the third floor. Yea yea I know I’ll get boos for that but what I realized was it’s very easy to just walk that flight of stairs. Instead of passively waiting to get to your floor, you instead have several opportunities to go up or down on the stairs (when you get to work, maybe lunch in the cafeteria, meetings on other floors, and when you go home). Those steps can add up after awhile and it’s more activity for you. I even knew a couple of people that walked 10 flights of stairs everyday instead of riding the elevator. Now that’s a lot of burned calories before they even sit in their cube!

Staying active in a passive type job is key to having variety, preventing you from getting bored and giving you much needed exercise during the day. I’d recommend trying these tactics and see for yourself how relaxing a quick walk can be. Just don’t take a walk off a plank

-The Lermz