It can often be exhausting to try to fit in a workout before or after your 9 to 5. Either you have to wake up at 6am like you’re training for a marathon, or do it after you’re mentally and physically spent from a long day in the office when normal people should be eating dinner or getting ready for bed. In this busy world, a solid solution is to fit in a workout at the office. There are moves you can fit in not just at the desk, but aspects at work you can utilize to burn calories throughout the workday.
1.Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
This might not sound like a workout, but if you take 15-20 minutes out of your lunch break to run up and down the stairs, experimenting with taking every other step and alternating that with sprints – you’ll feel the burn, and it’ll get your heart rate up, boosting your energy and mood for the rest of the day.
2.Replace your office chair with an exercise ball.
It forces you to focus on balance as well as using your abs more to hold yourself in the position. It’s also good for your lower back, and might even help you concentrate on your tasks more. Also, bouncy things are more fun.
3.Use your desk for planks and pushups.
Making your arms parallel to your body, practice pushing yourself from your forearms to your hands, and then back down to your forearms, mimicking a sort of stationary army crawl. It’s killer for arms and core. Alternate a series of these planks with simple pushups.
4. Walk around the hallways and do lunges.
This is one for the more open-minded offices where you won’t get glared at and hated by your co-workers and bosses. This way, you’re actually moving somewhere instead of being confined to working out in your cubicle, and might be able to even fit in a light jog in some empty hallways.
5. Do tricep pushes off your chair.
These are super easy and you can do a series switching around speed and depth – pulse or take it all the way down to get that heart rate up.
6. Try doing squats off your chair, or off your desk.
This is good for while you’re absorbing some reading material. Lower your chair as low as you can and try to almost touch it in your squat without actually doing it, as another way to guide form. Go as slow as you can to make the most of it.
7. Calf raises wherever.
While you’re waiting for that thousand page document to print, or on line at the cafeteria. Do calf raises to articulate those calf muscles and make them pop. Balance up on your tip toes and go back down slowly, activating the front and back of your lower leg.
8. A standing leg curl over the desk.
These can be done bending over your desk, with your forearms resting on it. Alternate kicking your leg high behind you with curling the calf and foot in to the back of the thigh and pulsing high for some hamstring action, activating the back of your thighs and booty.
9. Lift office objects as a sub for weights.
Lift random things instead of weights – a heavy stapler, reams of papers, or stapler. Alternatively, use it for a weighted squat, holding the object in your hands with arms straight in front of you (it’ll make it harder than bending them), for added core power. Voila, impromptu weights.
10. Magic Genie.
Push yourself off your chair with your legs crossed, and push upward on the armrests so your body raises off the seat. good for arm and core, and it’s a little cardio. try to stay floating for up to 20 seconds.
11. Seated isometric crunches.
Do a sitting crunch, where you tighten the muscles and make a c shape with your spine, slowly releasing to neutral spine and contracting the muscles, curling your chest in towards you legs while keeping your elbows on your thighs. Take it up a notch by driving your knee into the opposite elbow, getting in some oblique action.
12. Seated leg raises.
Lift your leg so your foot is on level with your hip, switching full lifts with tiny pulses for some good quad action. Or just hold it out like a deadweight in front of you. Either way, that hold or pulse will be sure to have your quads aching the next day.