Workplace Wellness With These Fitness Tips

Everyone has the best intentions when it comes to working out, but most people find that they don’t have the time when all the work and social commitments are out of the way. So how about combining the two? We spend such a long time at work each week that it makes sense to work out as best we can within those timeframes. You may not get as good of a workout as you would at the gym, but it will pad out some of those gaps that your working week creates. Ideally, any workout programme would include the following: aerobic activity, strengthening activities and flexibility exercises. The aerobic activity works on your heart rate and breathing, to improve your heart and lung health. Swimming, cycling and running all work this area of your body. Strengthening exercises involve weights and build your muscle mass – they not only increase your strength but also tone your body. Flexibility exercises, such as stretching, relax your body and lower your risk of injury. Best of all, you don’t need any equipment to stretch!

The current guidelines state that adults should get around 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days each week. The best way to check you’re on track is a pedometer – it tracks your progress and it’s small enough that you can carry it around with your at work discreetly. The best thing you need to remember is that your 30 minutes can be done over the course of the day, making it even easier to achieve during the working day. Why not go for a 15 minutes walk on your lunch break and then top it up with the rest of the day. Challenge yourself to 10,000 steps a day (which equates to around 30 minutes) then up your game when that becomes easy. We all get up to grab a drink, chat to colleagues and go to different departments every day, so why not track how much you’re moving? It will motivate you to do more when you see how much you’re doing each day, and you’ll feel confident of your ability to meet your own challenges.

Strength exercises may seem more difficult to achieve at work but the best way to do it is to buy a resistance ball, which will tone up your torso and improve the ergonomics of your workspace. Simple upper and lower body exercises can be done with this piece of equipment, and only takes around 15 minutes – easy to do on your coffee break without interrupting the rest of your work day. Lastly, stretching is the last component of your workout and helps to create a balanced exercise programme. You should work on the areas that are prone to work-related injuries, such as your back and posture. Resistance bands can help with this portion of the programme, helping you to work your chest, inner and outer thigh, hamstrings, hips and quadriceps. You should try to stretch each day, but a minimum of three times a week is a great start. If you want to stay injury-free, you need to ensure that your workspace is ergonomic. This means looking at the distance you sit from your computer screen, the way your hand sits on the mouse and keyboard, and the type of chair you sit on. With these considerations and three inexpensive pieces of equipment, you can create a makeshift gym from your workspace and help to tone up and get fit in no time.

Categories: aerobic activity, body, exercise, exercises, fitness, flexibility exercises, minutes, week, work, workplace

How Much Physical Activity Should You Do to Stay Healthy?

A lot of diet and exercise advice is geared towards fitness freaks and weight loss wishers, but what about your average Joe (or Jo) who just wants to look after their wellbeing? Let’s say you’re a working-age adult (19-64), how much physical activity do you need to do in order to keep healthy?

 

Whether you want to maintain or improve your wellness, you need to do two types of exercise on a weekly basis; aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity. How much you need to do depends on your age, so don’t follow these guidelines if you’re under the age of 19 or over 65. For the rest of you, your fitness regime should incorporate at least 150 minutes a week of aerobic exercise at a moderate intensity, which means taking up activities like fast walking or cycling. On two or more days a week, you also need to perform muscle-strengthening activities that work all major muscle groups (i.e. your legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms). Alternately, you could swap the 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercise for 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activities, such as running or tennis, or you could mix it up! You can do activities that strengthen your muscles on the same day or on different days as your aerobic activity, just choose whatever is best for you.

 

A great way to do your recommended 150 minutes of weekly physical activity is to break it down into manageable chunks of 30 minutes on 5 days a week. If you’re aiming for moderate-intensity activity, you know you’re on the right track if you breathe faster, feel warmer and have an elevated heart rate. You should be able to talk, but not sing the words to a song. Good examples of activities to choose from include walking fast, water aerobics, riding your bike on level ground or with a few hills, playing doubles tennis, pushing a lawn mower, hiking, skateboarding, rollerblading, volleyball and basketball.

 

When it comes to vigorous-intensity aerobic activities, your options are jogging, running, swimming fast, riding your bike fast or on hills, singles tennis, football, rugby, using a skipping rope, hockey, aerobics, gymnastics and martial arts. To determine whether or not you’re at the right level of intensity, check your speaking ability. You shouldn’t be able to say more than a few words without pausing for a breath. Moreover, you should be breathing hard and fast, and your heart rate should have gone up quite a bit. Generally, you’ll get the same health benefits from 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity as you would from 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity.

 

You count muscle-strengthening exercises in repetitions and set, with a repetition being one complete movement of an activity (like lifting a weight or doing a sit-up) and a set being a group of repetitions. On your two days of muscle-strengthening workouts, you should aim to complete eight to 12 repetitions in each set. While one set of each muscle-strengthening activity is a worthy goal, you’ll get even more benefits if you do two or even three sets. However, you may have to build up to this if you’re just starting out. The way to get the health benefits from muscle-strengthening activities is to do them to the point where you struggle to complete another repetition. You can do muscle-strengthening exercises at home or in the gym. This might mean lifting weights, working with resistance bands, yoga, heavy gardening like digging and shoveling, or doing exercises that use your body weight for resistance, such as push-ups and sit-ups.

Categories: adults, aerobic activities, aerobic activity, Health Benefits, Heart Rate, intensity activity, intensity aerobic, moderate intensity, muscle strengthening