Wednesday, February 18, 2009

NEAT Exercise Ideas For The Workplace

We are continuing our series on ways to implement NEAT movements into your daily tasks and thereby increase the amount of calories burned. Although you may not be able or wish to implement all of the suggestions even implementing one or two will increase your mobility and amount of calories that you burn in a day. The following things are ideas that can be implemented in the office at work.

  • Do sit on an exercise ball as it improves your posture and strengthens your core muscles and relieves back pain. Some office have actually replaced the chairs with treadmills, called a Walkstation! Wow, that would be great, we will have to put that one on our wish list! Do Not sit on a chair!

  • Do walk to your colleagues offices as a brisk walk while carrying paperwork as this will burn 60 calories in 15 minutes. Do not call, e-mail or inter-office mail.

  • Do whenever possible leave the office at lunch and meet a friend for a walk or a picnic. A leisurely walk can burn 100 calories. Do Not eat lunch at your desk.

  • Do take the stairs as you burn 12 calories per minute. Do Not take the elevator or escalator.

  • Do stand up and walk around while talking on the phone. Do Not just sit in your chair the whole time you are on the phone.

  • Do host an office party at a bowling alley or driving range. Do Not have cake and coffee in a restaurant or the conference room.

  • Do have walking meetings walking around the block or in a park as you can burn 150 calories if you are walking at 1 mph. Do Not hold a meeting in a conference room with everyone seated at a conference table.

  • Do set an egg time or alarm clock for 15 to 30 minutes intervals so that you get up and move and stretch every time it goes off. Do Not just sit for hours on end at a keyboard! Boy, this is a tough one to implement, but we are trying!

  • Do wear headphone or an ipod, if possible and it will keep you moving even if it is only tapping your toes. Do Not put on music that will make you drop off to sleep, put on something lively!

  • Do keep a comfortable pair of shoes handy so that you can easily go for a walk at lunch or on your break time, also it is a great idea to attach a pedometer to yourself and strive for 10,000 steps per day! Do Not remain sedentary all day!

We are aiming to implement as many of these relatively simple ideas into our daily routine as possible. We are starting our with the timer idea about getting up and moving around at 20 minute intervals. We also take the stairs numerous times a day since our office in the lower level, so we have to take the stairs (12 of them) up and down in order to get to our kitchen and living room. When the weather permits, which has not been too frequently the past couple of months, we do go for a walk after dinner. I think the next one we need to start to work on is getting up and walking around while on the phone! We hope this gives you some ideas for adding NEAT into your daily work routine.


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