This is how you stay fit despite working from home!
The home office may have only become the norm for you since the Corona pandemic. At first glance, it is quite relaxed and saves a lot of time. But working from home quickly leads to a lack of exercise - and that can have numerous consequences.
These risks of deficient exercise include:
- Pain in the neck, shoulder & back area
- Eye problems and difficulty concentrating
- general exhaustion & tiredness
- bad mood & a feeling of irritability
In the long term, lack of exercise can lead to obesity and promotes a number of diseases. Even diabetes or depression can be the long-term consequences.
In many cases, one of the main reasons for the lack of exercise is simply not being able to commute to work. We at SportPlus have also got to know the risk factor of working from home in our team and would like to show you how you can stay fit despite working from home.
Discover our top 5 tips for a healthy & fit life despite working from home. You have to see the home office as an opportunity, then you can achieve a lot!
Don't neglect your diet — Tip 1
If you spend a lot of time in your own four walls, the fridge is always within reach. This increases the risk of eating unhealthy food. Therefore, our first tip is that you try to eat a varied and healthy diet. The advantage compared to working in the office is that your kitchen is available at all times. You should use this to cook fresh and balanced.
Cook for yourself, try new recipes or try the Meal Prep principle for preparing several meals before a stressful day at work. As a snack between meals, nuts, fruit or vegetable sticks are better than chocolate or chips.
Plan a sporty break — Tip 2
In addition to healthy nutrition, exercise is particularly important to stay fit despite working from home. Consciously plan breaks and times for short training sessions and try not to let them stop you. The biggest mistake that is often made in the home office: staying in your pajamas all day and only commuting between the kitchen, desk and maybe the couch.
Short walks, small workouts or a quick lap on the home trainer are popular and effective methods that will make you feel fitter very soon. Sometimes you have to force yourself a bit. A good tool is a pedometer app, for example. It motivates you to persevere.
Keep moving while you work — tip 3
Especially when we are sitting down, we tend to strain ourselves on one side and can quickly develop postural damage and pain. The neck, shoulders and back in particular are quickly affected.
So that the times of working from home and less exercise don't leave negative marks in the long term, you shouldn't sit stiff for hours at work. Just one of many possibilities would be training with our leg trainer. You don't have to leave your seat for this, but keep moving.
The “walk & talk” principle has also become established in our company. We combine many meetings with a walk. Microsoft Teams and headphones with a microphone make it possible.
You are not a (working) machine! — Tip 4
Of course it's wonderful if you eat healthily and build exercise into your everyday life in the home office. But don't forget that your body is not a machine. Maybe you just need a bit of relaxation while reading, listening to music or watching TV.
Just give your body a break instead of filling every free minute with a workout or something else that makes sense. Recovery is just as important as physical activity. Of course you should find the right balance – just lying on the couch after work is certainly not a good option!
Clearly separate work and leisure — Tip 5
The biggest challenge in the home office is the separation of work and free time. Many people do not find the right jump at home and therefore spend much more time on the computer than is absolutely necessary.
Therefore, set clear working hours and try to stick to them as best as possible. That won't always work, though. But you will quickly notice that it has a positive effect on your well-being.
Conclusion: Fit & healthy through small changes in your habits!
We hope that with our tips you will stay fit and healthy in the home office and that you can incorporate more exercise into your everyday life. It is to be expected that our working life could shift more and more into the domestic sphere in the future. It is therefore important that you start rethinking early on.
Similar to a successful diet, you should not see your new habits as an exceptional situation, but change your mindset. You can achieve short-term success with our tips. But you also have to stick with it in the long term in order to stay fit in the long term.
Of course, we don't necessarily want to turn you into a competitive athlete who does push-ups at every conference call and uses the folders as weights for the workout . But a little exercise is very helpful. This will help you maintain your physical fitness and avoid many unpleasant consequences.
