Fitness On The Job

LifeInTheBikeLane
LifeInTheBikeLane Posts: 345 Member
edited November 8 in Fitness and Exercise
I was just wondering how people go about staying active in their work places? I know some jobs are very physically demanding and other jobs require long periods of time sitting. What do you guys do?

When I lost my first 80lbs+ I worked a job where I was standing up and moving around nonstop for 8 hours or more. I then went to my first desk job: 12 hours of sitting and doing absolutely nothing (not even work!). I began working out on my lunch breaks and walking around the building and eventually quit the job because it was killing me inside (Boring, stationary job!). My current job has me walking up and down multiple flights of stairs almost daily and walking close to a mile a day. I have a gym in my office and am allowed to use it on lunch breaks and my Director lets me get up and dance behind my desk when I'm feeling like I need to stretch. I'm an Assistant Property Manager, if that explains it a little bit.
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Replies

  • Spencerport
    Spencerport Posts: 270 Member
    In a way I lucked out as I work for Xerox in one of the test labs. Our lab is in a large warehouse building and per my Fitbit it is a 1200 step walk when I do my "perimeter walk." I easily walk 5-7 miles a day just at work. Add in all the paper that I have to move to my printer and to the recycle bins all day and I get a decent workout just by going to work.
  • Winterlover123
    Winterlover123 Posts: 352 Member
    I got lucky with the height of my desk. I have a chair but I choose to stand. It's not a lot but it's better than sitting all day :)
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    I have a desk job but I improvise and will go from one office to another several times just to get myself up and moving. Its amazing how you can factor movement into what would normally be a mostly sedentary job - I can now clock up around 4000 steps just at work. Before I come to work in the morning I workout, so before I leave the house I have already totted up 7000-9000 steps alone.
    If I want to eat 2000 calories I have to earn them :smile:
  • EMTFreakGirl
    EMTFreakGirl Posts: 597 Member
    Somedays my job is one very long workout...somedays it's just sitting around and waiting. On the "waiting days" I am lucky to enjoy the full gym my squad has. (And most days I really do use it!)
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    I have a desk job, and I work on the tenth floor. Every lunchtime, I go walking for 30-45 minutes. On my morning and afternoon breaks, I take the stairs down to the first floor and climb back up to the tenth. If I'm feeling really tired, I'll do some bodyweight squats in my cubicle. Sometimes I get funny looks, but idgaf. I'm in better shape than everyone I work with.
  • ew_david
    ew_david Posts: 3,473 Member
    There's a gym in my office building and I used it pretty regularly when I was doing all cardio. When I switched to weights, I had to go to a different gym because the office gym didn't have a lot of the equipment that I needed.
  • Tikibar72
    Tikibar72 Posts: 93 Member
    My company really promotes being active, given that we're all at desks it's helpful! We have fitness centers in the office building with cardio, weights, group classes and a great trail system for walking. Very fortunate! I make a point to walk during lunch, or walk up to the top floor to fill my water bottle, etc. Helps with the FitBit step counts!
  • Mister_Al
    Mister_Al Posts: 16
    I have days with 4-6 hours of calls and meetings, so some days it's tough. I'll take calls standing up, will take the long way to get a coffee or to the kitchen when grabbing my lunch.
  • BRobertson23
    BRobertson23 Posts: 150 Member
    I have to do quite a bit of work at my desk, but I have co-workers who I take walks with on our morning and afternoon breaks. Additionally, I will do squats or lunges whenever I take a bathroom break. My husband and I used to do a contest to see how many squats we could get in during the work day. We would text our # during lunch breaks to see where we were at. I'm competitive enough that if he was higher, I'd try to add in more for myself before the work day ended.
  • nancybuss
    nancybuss Posts: 1,461 Member
    I sit all day, and basically most of the night. :(
    Get up and move when you can.
    Bathroom breaks, you can do some pushups against the sink, squats, and a few different moves.
    When you have to go somewhere, take the stairs twice if you can (go up and down and up to where you're going for example)

    Good luck!

  • congruns
    congruns Posts: 127 Member
    10 coworkers and myself just finished the 30 day tricep dip challenge.. takes about 15 minutes a day.
  • Cielazul
    Cielazul Posts: 77 Member
    I have a Desk Cycle under my desk, and I pedal it whenever I can. I also do walking loops around my my department when I can get away from my office. I still work out and lift on my regular schedule as well, even on my work days.
  • LifeInTheBikeLane
    LifeInTheBikeLane Posts: 345 Member
    zillie77 wrote: »
    I have a Desk Cycle under my desk, and I pedal it whenever I can. I also do walking loops around my my department when I can get away from my office. I still work out and lift on my regular schedule as well, even on my work days.

    That. Is. Amazing. I want this and I must now set out to find where one can be bought for an extremely cheap price!
  • Chaotic_Weevil
    Chaotic_Weevil Posts: 199 Member
    I work 2 nights and 2 days a week in 12 hour shifts. It's extremely sedentary and due to the nature of the job, lunch has to be taken at my desk, so I can't go for a walk or use the gym.

    However I can get away with leaving my spot for a few minutes once per hour. My building has nine flights of stairs, so every hour I walk up those and take the lift down. If I'm feeling energetic enough I will jog up as many of them as I can.

    I also just fidget a lot at my desk. It's not much, but it helps.
  • ElliottTN
    ElliottTN Posts: 1,614 Member
    zillie77 wrote: »
    I have a Desk Cycle under my desk, and I pedal it whenever I can. I also do walking loops around my my department when I can get away from my office. I still work out and lift on my regular schedule as well, even on my work days.

    Interesting. Going to have to look at one of these and weigh in of the weird looks I'll get are worth it.

  • Cielazul
    Cielazul Posts: 77 Member
    LifeInTheBikeLane wrote: »
    zillie77 wrote: »
    I have a Desk Cycle under my desk, and I pedal it whenever I can. I also do walking loops around my my department when I can get away from my office. I still work out and lift on my regular schedule as well, even on my work days.

    That. Is. Amazing. I want this and I must now set out to find where one can be bought for an extremely cheap price!

    I got mine on Amazon for about $150, it is the DeskCycle brand one, but I am sure with a little research you can find one that is just as good but lower in price.

  • epido
    epido Posts: 353 Member
    edited November 2014
    As a paramedic, I workout on duty pretty much every shift. Some days it's a kettle bell workout, or I hang up the TRX. Other days I go for a run. Most of the time, I am even able to complete the workout and get a shower in without catching a call.

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  • tulips_and_tea
    tulips_and_tea Posts: 5,744 Member
    I have a desk job, but my printer, fax, copier, etc. are in a separate room, so I make countless trips back and forth all day. I also make sure I take bathroom breaks regularly, which is down the hall, and drink lots of water.

    And, this may seem trivial to some, but something that really helps me is maintaining proper posture. I have my computer monitors, phone, keyboard, etc. all placed so that I can keep proper spine alignment and I have a foot rest that raises my knees to the right height. I don't cross my legs, either. At the end of the day, if my back and neck hurt I'd sure be less likely to workout!
  • lavaughan69
    lavaughan69 Posts: 459 Member
    My company has manufacturing behind the offices with a safe walking path around the outside edge. I do laps on my lunch hour for a 1/2 hour at a very very fast pace. I'm completely winded by the time I'm done. The bests part is I can't use my excuse that it's too cold or it's raining or it's too humid to exercise...it's always the same conditions! :-)

  • PAtinCO
    PAtinCO Posts: 129 Member
    I don't eat on lunch and go walk for an hour instead. I just eat while I'm working for food during the day, a small snack every couple of hours or so.

    Plus I work out when I get home.
  • silentKayak
    silentKayak Posts: 658 Member
    I rigged up a standing desk by putting my laptop on some boxes. I now stand for at 4-6 hours a day (I have a desk job) and "pace" while I'm on the phone. I'm also starting to stand in the evenings while watching TV or just "hanging around" at home. Sounds weird, but it's just a habit.

    Sometimes I march in place and I'm constantly stretching as I stand. For a while we had a thing going where a few times a day someone would email the whole office for "pushups" and we'd all drop and do 10, but that seems to have died out. It was fun while it lasted.

    Desk jobs suck.
  • micheleld73
    micheleld73 Posts: 914 Member
    Our building has a fitness center and then we are also next to a great trail. I walk or use the elliptical during my 15 minute breaks at least once a day, but I shoot for both breaks. Then I do Insanity workouts during lunch and strength training in the evenings on MWF.
  • LifeInTheBikeLane
    LifeInTheBikeLane Posts: 345 Member
    I love seeing that so many people have gyms in their buildings!
  • BrandyStinnett
    BrandyStinnett Posts: 10 Member
    I get a lot of walking in while working. It's a decent size store, not quite Wal-Mart size, but we are moving to a new location that will be close. I am ALL OVER the place during a shift. One girl has a fitbit (I don't have mine yet) and she usually walks Two or three miles in a shift. My position requires even more walking than she does. Also there are two desks in the office. The one I work at most often requires me to stand. Although this part isn't a constant, its not uncommon to do heavy lifting and carrying. One more advantage in my job? There have been a couple times within the past year several of us did a Biggest Loser style challenge.
  • kwiatrtdy
    kwiatrtdy Posts: 383 Member
    Oddly enough I used to have a really active job and would walk about 13 miles a day, 5 days a week just at work, but I massively struggled to lose weight. I think it was just very hard to work out a balance between my calorie intake and expenditure, so I was always tired and hungry. Now I've got my desk job, I barely move around at work but it makes it easier to count calories because I know how many I am burning each day (I have a HRM for my 25 min workouts every evening) and can eat accordingly.
  • gamesandgains
    gamesandgains Posts: 640 Member
    I sit all day at my job but for my lunch i go walk for an hr.
  • cath498
    cath498 Posts: 5
    How many steps shall I aim for?
    I am a beauty therapist so sitting most of the day. Very rarely get a lunch break but my mornings seem to be the most busiest as I have horses,cows,chickens,ducks dogs and cats to feed not to mention washing and house hold duties before work. When I get home it's the same as the morning but by the end of the day I could only be reaching around 6000 steps. I use a garmin and it automatically will work out how many steps you should do and it's only 6500. I'm thinking this is not enough although loosing weight but not much.
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
    edited February 2015
    Lunch. BReaks. Most of us get them, excellent time to kick some butt.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I use my lunch breaks to cycle...if the weather is crappy I have a backup gym a block away from the office that I can go get in some cardio work. I hit the weight room at my main gym by my house after work a couple nights per week and I crush the *kitten* out of my fitness on weekends.
  • AllanMisner
    AllanMisner Posts: 4,140 Member
    I park as far from the entrance as I can and that gives me a walk in and out of the building. I never use the elevator and at least once a day do 1st to 4th and back stairs. And more importantly, I negotiated getting an adjustable desk. I switch between standing and sitting (sitting on a stability ball) every 45 - 60 minutes.
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