Desk sitting

[SusieTee]

I sit all day at a desk, if I leave for lunch someone is always looking for me.  What can I do inside an office for exercise.  Sometimes literally hours pass before I get up.

[WendyB]

I get up every hour and walk around for 5 minutes.

Take the long way to get wtaer, coffee, go to bathroom etc.

Dont email go talk to co-worker.

I sure they can do with out you for 5 minutes. Everyone needs some time away at lunch to re-coup

[JPAZ357]

I know the feeling of not being able to go to lunch with out being bothered. I have to leave the building and turn off my cell phone if I want to enjoy lunch! 

I make it a point to walk around the building once an hour, and I'm  making less phone calls and am going to see the person I need to talk to instead (despite not really wanting too!) 

[LadyMousie]

I have been lucky enough to get my boss to buy me a stand-up sit-down desk.  It takes a bit of getting used to and I've only had it a couple of weeks but already my hip pain is reducing.  Our wellness coordinator asked me to track standing time on my fitbit, but I have been a bit slack in this area aqs I get cought up in work, but the times I have done it - I have stood for about 2-3 hours per day and burned around 250-350 calories that I wouldn't have burned sitting down

[LilBudyWizer]

Just park far enough way it takes you 15 minutes to walk to your office from your car then take a 15 minutes walk every two hours. Nothing keeps you from thinking about your work while you walk. So it doesn't actually interfer with your work. When it comes to other people enforce some boundaries. If you're the supervisor even more so. The world should not fall apart if you're not there. You want your people to actually work.

Ask some of the people if they would mind walking and talking. Chances are it's better. You have their undivided attention then. They aren't playing with their e-mail or talking on the phone while you set their watching them. Unless one of you actually needs to read something, take notes or sometime more than talk there's no reason you can't walk while doing that. You don't get interupted because no one is going to search the entire building for either of you. There's no point to a group meeting unless there's actual collaboration. I hate hour long meeting to keep me informed of what I could have read in five minutes. Encourage people to actually talk to one another instead of everyone talking to you.

[jaycatmac]

Hey!

I sometimes find it hard to remember ot get up: if not to walk, then at least to stretch. I use my iPad as my productivity hub at work and i DL'd an app that is basically a timer. I have it set to 25 min of work, then it sets to 5 minutes of stretch. There are tons of them out there.

Actually my "get up and stretch" reminder says "SITTING KILLS: Go get tea!" and "MOAR STEPS!!!"

Now I am not sure what kind of job you have, but do you have informal meetings? If so can you have "walking meetings"  That might work if you need informal stuff done.

OR you can just put it out there that you need to do this for your health. For instance: I had gestational diabetes (temporary diabetes that happens to pregnant women sometimes) and I was very upfront with my boss. I was constantly eating (grazing) and I had to go walking. Everyone was really supportive. I'm not sure about your own health but if you (or anyone reading this) is pre-diabetic or diabetic, put that out there and sya this is for my health: I will go walking.

Yes, people need you but being on call 100% of the time is also not good for your career. You need that downtime in order to refresh your batteries. I bet your productivity and creative output will go up once you take this for you.

Cause you are worth it!

[Mary]

I'm with LilBudy.  In fact, I want to go work with him.  

I get stuck at my desk in my home office.  I force myself to go outdoors and walk the dogs at least 45 minutes a day.  

I often remind myself of something author Wayne Dyer said, to justify his walking 90 minutes, 365 days a year:  "I'm paid by the idea, not the hour."  

[PastaLuver14]

I think if I moved to getting a desk job, I would be so axious.Not a good fit for me.

Anyways, why do they go looking for you? I would have suggested to leave a note or sign at your desk. Let it say "Be back in 20 mins" or whatever time you get on break.  Just an idea. If that does not work you could purchase a stability ball. I know of someone that had one in their office. Used it to sit on it and do ab workouts with it.

[Ukase]

To the OP - Other than having a conversation with your boss about an actual lunch break, where those 30 minutes to an hour are your time and not company time, there's not much you can do, except do your job to the best of your ability.

Taking a 5 minute break every hour may sound reasonable, but the companies we work for aren't always thinking very long term about employee health. I can assure you, your co-workers and boss would notice and you might very well get some negative consequences - but then again, you might not. Certainly a 15 minute break every two hours might be plausible - but only if those breaks were in lieu of a one hour lunch. Again, I don't know your corporate climate, but in my line of work, you'd likely get suspended or fired until you worked like you were getting paid to do so.

10,000 steps is a fair amount of walking. It's highly unreasonable to think everyone can get a lot of this done while at work. A lunch hour - sure. You may just have a job that doesn't allow this. So what? Wake up 15 minutes earlier, and go for a quick walk. Then go for another walk after you've eaten. You may not get 10,000 steps on a weekday, but you can make up for it on the weekend. Just use the FitBit to adjust your diet for a predominantly sedentary lifestyle.

[aleahy19]

@SusieTee, I often have the same problem. At a minimum I try to maintain good posture, roll out my shoulders and raise my arms every once in a while. I also lift my legs off the floor (or one leg at a time) periodically, and do mini calf raises and sometimes I'll use the armrests and raise my body off of my chair. That said, none of these "activities" can replace getting up and moving around, but they're better than nothing! 

[Cosmogirl0115]

How large is your office? Mine is a decent size, with a door I can close. I have a yoga mat in my office, and I'll do yoga. I subscribe to Gaiam TV, which has 100s of yoga videos of varying lengths. I'll start one and go through the poses in about 10 minutes. I'm probably not burning that many calories, but you are doing a lot of stretching, which will help you feel better. My Fitbit does record this movement and I burn a few extra calories.

[Mary]

I just started a Chrome extension called Fitbolt I found on the Fitbit apps page here.  It flashes a quickie exercise for you to do every 30 minutes, usually a 30-60 second thing.  

[aleahy19]

@Mary, thanks for the info.! Fitbolt sounds like a great tool. I'm going to download the extension now 🙂

[summerof69]

I walk and talk with my boss when we do one-on-ones - we both would rather be outside in the fresh air. Steve Jobs used to do this for meetings as well. 

[River61_NYC]

I have a desk job and everyone is always looking for me, too.  Our office space is large, with a flight of stairs between two floors.  I aim to take those stairs a often as possible, deliver things by hand, and "tour the perimeter" of each floor as often as possible throughout the day.  All the sitting really affects the circulation in my legs and I know it isn't good for a body.  I also aim to take the stairs instead of escalators whenever possible, which can be challenging in some subway stations here in NYC where you are way below ground.

[Coenlj]

The fitbolt idea is amazing!!!! Thank you!

[Haley]

I currently cyber school so I'm also stuck at a desk all day. I sometimes will replace  my desk chair with an exercise ball. I'll (lightly) bounce, sway side to side and try to get any movement while using the ball. I'll also stand at my desk and type, just to get any form of movement in. Doing a lot of arm exercises while you wait for things to load is also a good idea. I make sure to drink plenty of water as well. Any excuse to briefly remove myself away from my desk!

[Trazina]

If at all possible set boundaries. People will continue to 'hunt you down' if you let them. I know some employers are not always respectful, bit for your own mental health you at least have to try. In the meantime there are some great suggestions here. Anything you can do to move is better for you than sitting still all day. Drink lots of water - you'll HAVE to go to the bathroom, and they can't stop you from doing that! 😉

[Rooster61]

This is a great opportunity to work on your core. Buy a large swiss ball and use it to sit on vs. the chair. You need to work it in. Sit on it for 15-20 or 30minutes every so often. The stability ball helps but you need to work it in. FRom there add some weights, 5, lb 7'lb for shoulder work outs while on the phone. Or flap with two hands while on a conference call. 

Good luck

[KateDu]

I park far away from the entrance to my wok, too.  I make a point of walking every hour, even if it's around the room where I work.