Don't Be So Static
The morning alarm goes off, 7 AM. You hit the snooze three times, rush into the shower, get dressed, and you are your way to work. As with most San Diegans, you sit in 30 minutes of traffic before you get to work. From 8-12:00 you open the computer, hide in your office, and prepare for the next four hours of emails, meetings, and some chatter with coworkers. You have gone the first 5 hours of your day and the most movement you have completed is walking from your car to your desk and possibly a couple bathroom breaks.
As health conscious athletes, you have a steak and salad for lunch, usually sitting at your desk, and then it is right back to work for another four hours to finish the work day. At 5:00 you head to the car to sit in another 30 minutes of traffic on your way to San Diego Athletics. Once there, you get some awesome exercise, learn a lot, enjoy your friends, and then it is back to the house where you most likely sit on the couch and get some relaxation in before going to bed to do it all again.
When you take a snapshot of a very average day for many people, it is glaringly obvious that movement is not only lacking, but almost nonexistent. An overwhelming majority of the day is spent sitting in a car, sitting at a desk, or sitting on a couch. This fact is devastating to your physical fitness, general health, and long term lifestyle. If you were to look at a pie graph of the 24 hours in your day, the 20 hours you are static (sitting or sleeping) trumps the one to two hours a day of movement and exercise.
I understand I am the minority working in a gym. I spend a lot of time on my feet. Just today I coached two morning classes, did a little writing, checked some emails, personal training, and now I am back on the computer finishing some work. Tonight I will be a part of two classes and have additional personal training clients. I am not working out today so this is on the low end of movement for an average day. On any given day I spend up to eight hours, not including “exercise,” on my feet, walking, squatting, picking up weights, stretching, running warm ups, and screaming at people to make lifts. I know everyone cannot do this for a living, but the lifestyle is unmatched. I spend 6-8 hours a day moving, not exercising, but moving. I remember when we first opened it took me about a month before I was in shape enough just to get through a day.
The difference in running a gym and having an office job is the perfect example to understand the concept of movement. No, you cannot be in your office and start bench pressing your chair. I mean, you could but you may get fired. I also know you are not allowed to walk into your boss’s office and teach them how to squat. But there are tons of ways to add movement to your day. Adding movement will not only increase your work environment but it will also give you time to get away, see the sun and get some vitamin D, and it will also present opportunities for social interaction which is often very lacking in most office environments.
Tomorrow I will dig into some easy to use tactics to increase movement throughout your day without being the weird person deadlifting your desk.
Anders will be hosting a FREE clinic on Thursday at 6PM at 1019 Garnet Ave. The clinic is open and free to everyone. Bring a friend and let’s learn…
