Over the last few months work from home has been tough for all of us. It’s been the norm we’ve had to get used to amidst the Coronavirus pandemic that’s impacted practically everyone’s lifestyles.
Instead of waking up earlier in the morning to take up our commute to work and entering the office to greet our colleagues, you’ve perhaps resorted to video meetings and later breakfasts instead. Working from home can really have it’s perks if your job allows you to do so.
On the other hand, there can also be some downfalls to working from home too. One aspect in particular could be your exercise levels. For the majority of us, the commute to and from work can be a great convenience when heading to the gym to do our workout. However, with commutes no longer part of our working day, you may have felt that you’ve not been as proactive with your workouts recently.
It’s important that whilst you’re working from home, you still make the most of keeping active and staying healthy throughout the day. Even if it’s just for a few minutes a day, a lunch break is always a great time to squeeze in a little workout and take some time away from your work too.
If you’re looking for something quick and effective, here are 3 exercises that can be really effective to try in your working day. It can re-energise, re-vitalise and almost restart you again for the next part of the day.
1. Lunges
You might be sitting down for the majority of your working day, so your legs aren’t perhaps getting the workout that it requires during the day. Lunges are a great way to energise them and your buttocks. As you won’t be working your legs throughout the day, it’s the perfect exercise to keep you active, particularly as we don’t get the chance to get out much too.
If you have the privilege of having free weights at home, they can be useful to make the exercise more effective, but they aren’t necessary. In order to perform the exercise, you simply require putting one foot out in front of you, and stretching it out with your knee bent and front foot flat. The other leg should be behind you and used to stretch the lower half of your body muscles.
Once you’ve stretched one leg get back up in a standing position and do the same with the other leg.
2. Squats
The gruelling feeling of doing squats on a leg day. It really is a love or hate exercise due to the pain it causes after it’s completed, but this is because it’s such an effective exercise. Again, this works the lower half of your body and as a little tip, you should maybe consider giving yourself a little more time to rest after as you may feel a bit of a strain shortly after the exercise, especially if you’re sitting on a chair all day. After the exercise, make sure you stretch to avoid any cramp.
This exercise practically mimics sitting down and getting up off a chair. Keep your legs shoulder width apart and crouch down with your back relatively straight. Bend your knees in the process and try to get yourself as low to the ground as possible, trying to keep your knees above your ankle. Once you’ve got as low as you can in this position, return back to a standing position and continue to repeat this action for the number of repetitions you planned in your set.
3. Planks
If you’re really borrowed for time and unable to work individual sections of your body, you could efficiently choose to perform planks as part of your workout. This is a timed exercise and just requires your body to perform which means you can focus more on performing exercise rather than being distracted by how many repetitions you need to count. Just be wary that this exercise can really test your strength and stamina.
To perform this particular exercise, it requires you to elevate your body off the floor using your forearms. Alternatively, you can also use your hands if you feel more comfortable doing so. The aim of this exercise is to hold your body in position for a set amount of time as you feel your muscles working throughout. The more times you perform the exercise, you should begin to feel your body become stronger and hold your weight for longer.
Final takeaways
It’s important that during these testing times that we look after our mental and physical health. So if you’re in a regular office job like working for a branding agency or in HR for a legal firm, we should be prioritising our health over most things whilst COVID regulations stay in place, and performing exercises at home can be a great way to improve this.
On top of this, it’s also important to consume a healthy diet, whether it’s through your natural diet or by having probiotic supplements, for example, socialising where we can with friends and family and utilising our break times at work to prevent burnout.
