We often spend more than a third of each day at the office. That’s a lot of time to often be sitting at a desk or in front of a computer. It’s to our advantage to make those hours more active not only for our health, but for our professional life, too. Even simple activities like walking help to get blood and creative juices flowing. If your office has a gym, definitely use it. Get some colleagues together for a workout or walking group and make it your own recurring “meeting.”
Here are 7 more ways you can get active and build office camaraderie while you’re at it:
1. Replace the birthday cake celebration with strawberries and cream and have everyone in the office participate in whipping the cream! It doesn't take nearly as long as you think and this also gives people the option to just eat the fruit or both and more easily control the quantity!
2. Conduct a group staff meeting standing up. You’ll be surprised how much more engaged people are in the meeting; there’s no way to hide behind a laptop or slouch to check your phone either!
3. Before you press that send button, consider if it could easily be answered in person. Designate one day a week where you and your colleagues agree to walk over to the other's desk to talk in person rather than sending that email.
4. Schedule a “Walk Talk” with your colleagues. Pick a project you're working on and use the time to brainstorm and throw out different ideas to move the project forward. Turns out that walking can help you be more creative, too!
5. Whenever someone comes into your office or to your desk, stand up to talk with them. Take the time to stretch those legs and avoid the awkward eye contact by having to look up at them from your chair.
6. Put one of those random heavy paperweights to good use and designate it the office hand weight. Start the workout chain by doing 3 sets of 12 bicep curls and then pass it on to the next person. See how many times you can circulate it throughout the office.
7. Post this series of easy exercises on the office microwave or water cooler: “If you're reading this, then try one of the following exercises while you're waiting – balance on one foot for 30-second OR do 10-20 calf raises OR 10-20 leg lifts to the side.”
Visit FITWEEK for more tips on how to bring fitness in your every day life and turn every week into a FITWEEK.