So, wife convinced me to get a physical for the 1st time in 4...5 years.
Doc says I need to be more active, which we all know is hard with a desk job and multiple kids.
Any thoughts on office compliant exercise? I've been eyeballing an under-desk exercise bike, but wonder if they are actually worthwhile.
If it ever stops raining, I'll get back walking the trails on lunch as well.
I've been running at the park next to my office at lunch. Like you, I'm at a desk all day with three kids.
I'm down 12+lbs in a month.
In the old days, a man could get some exercise chasing his secretary around a desk. Alas, these days, such things are frowned upon.
In reply to Scooter:
How? I get sweaty as all get out - do you have a shower?
My coworker and I will walk stairs together when it's not pleasant outside. We are in a 5 story building so we walk up a floor, cross to the other stairwell, climb another floor and repeat until we reach the top. Then we reverse to the 1st floor and climb back to our floor. It's about 1100 steps, and we do it several times a day. It helps. If it's not raining (but too hot to do the whole walk outside) we sneak up on the roof for a couple laps.
You can get one of those big exercise balls and sit on that in lieu of a standard office chair for at least part of your day. Makes you exercise posture and balance while sitting at the keyboard.
Figure out some basic exercises to do (e.g. push ups, sit ups, pull ups) and set an alarm to do them at certain intervals, or just make a point whenever you hit a wall to drop and do 20 push ups instead of staring at the computer screen in frustration.
I think the office thing is well documented. Stairs instead of elevator, walk at lunch, blah, blah, blah. The trick, I think, is to incorporate the fact of having children. "Hey, kids, lets go! I've got the soccer net set up, and we need to practice penalty shots!"
You just need to hire a personal trainer to drop in occasionally to keep you on your toes:
Get a Fitbit and set it to nag you hourly to go walk around. I get ~ 6k steps in each work day just stretching my legs now and again. Fortunately, my job allows me to roam a bit, and with a second floor desk, can also get in a flight of steps if I make a lap around. Only one time did I get asked by an HR person why I walked around "so often". "Doctor's suggestion during last physical" was deemed a good answer. Next step for me might be a standing desk.
what about those "standing desks" to keep your fat arse off of the chair?
bastomatic wrote: In reply to Scooter: How? I get sweaty as all get out - do you have a shower?
We have showers at work. I do one of the following if I don't get sucked into lunch meetings:
~2.2 mile run, crossfit workout at halfway point
~14 mile bike ride with co-workers
Go to gym down the street to do workout
You can get a killer workout done in 15 mins if you are motivated.
To answer the OP's question, if you aren't concerned about looking silly in your office: Burpees, pushups, body squats, crunches, lunges, etc. and variations of all of those. All can be done with no equipment and you can make your workout as relaxed or nuts as you want.
bastomatic wrote: In reply to Scooter: How? I get sweaty as all get out - do you have a shower?
I sweat like a machine and I don't shower after a 3-mile run. Usually just try to run the AC in my truck until I get back to the office. Good to go.
You guys take llunch at work?
I've been using an adjustable height desk for the past year. No idea about any health benefit, but I like it and think there is a productivity benefit.
I have a recumbent bike as my exercise chair. I've had it for years after ditching the peddler like you show above.
I LOVE it. The best part was that my employer bought it when I brought in a Dr. note saying I had bad knees. I have an adjustable height desk to go along with it.
Grtechguy wrote: So, wife convinced me to get a physical for the 1st time in 4...5 years. Doc says I need to be more active, which we all know is hard with a desk job and multiple kids. Any thoughts on office compliant exercise? I've been eyeballing an under-desk exercise bike, but wonder if they are actually worthwhile.
Where there's a will, there's a way. You have to really want to do it. Period. If you don't, it won't happen. I'm in a nearly identical life situation to you. Work full time at a desk, plus have a 60 mile each way commute, and three kids who play year round sports. I don't mean this to come off the wrong way as a holier-than-though snob, but just outlining what I do. I get up at 4am Mon-Fri and spend 60-90 minutes at the gym, busting my butt. My workout is very weight training intensive, followed by 15-30 minutes of cardio. Saturdays, I'll often go for a quick run. Just as important, and actually more important, is my nutrition. I'm quite tight on that. I'm in my mid-40s and am pretty darn shredded. My wife is even more shredded than I am.
I'm not saying you need to get up at 4am. Just throwing my example out there. My point is that you don't need those silly under desk fake bicycle things. Never used them, but I suspect they're "As Seen on TV" store junk. Find the time somewhere in your day to get proper workouts in. A lot of good suggestions are already posted here. If you can't get to a gym, all kinds of things you can do...run, stairs, air squats, burpees, etc... Eat right. Do that and you'll be in great shape, but you have to be committed to it.
Do what the army does. Get a heavy rifle like an M14 and just run around the office with it.
Huckleberry wrote: Do what the army does. Get a heavy rifle like an M14 and just run around the office with it.
yes!!
Im super excited...after years of being livestock in a cube farm, Im getting an office, with a door that closes.
I plan to get a 40# kettle ball to keep at work. I have a whole routine planned incorporating it along with several body-weight exercises. With that, and some stair walking, I hope to lose some weight before I put it back on over the holidays lol
I try to get up from my desk and walk around once in a while. Right now I'm going to walk down to the break room and see if there are any donuts.
Bike to work an option? That's what I do.
I try to get up from my desk ever so often and just walk around a little bit. Right after lunch, I try to go for a walk around the building. Seems to work.
We get pushed to do remote support, I am in IT, but if I can I try to go to where the issue is. It gets me out from behind my desk.
I'm surprised no one has said Amy!
I also spend my work day in a cubicle and have children. We get three breaks a day (two 15s and a lunch). I walk outside for each of those breaks and a coworker and I lift weights together for 30 minutes or so in the company gym at the end of our day.
If you are into cycling, I've been on zwift and trainer road for the past months and have dropped 10 pounds. 1 hour per day, 4 - 5 days per week.
HIIT is the current fitness buzzword, it's worked for me.
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