By now we’ve all seen the headlines warning against sitting for too long. “It’s the new smoking,” they say. Research suggests you’re short-changing yourself by sitting all day, regardless of your workout.
Even if you’re an athlete with an intense conditioning routine, sitting all day can land you in the “active couch potato” category. The “active couch potato” is defined as a person who exercises 30 minutes per day but sits the rest of the time. They have the worst blood sugar control, body fat percentage and cholesterol profiles of the four classifications defined in a 2022 study published in the Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise journal. A “mover” is a person who exercises an hour per day and moves sporadically throughout the day. They have the best blood sugar control, body fat percentage and cholesterol profiles. There are two other groups in between– “sedentary light movers” and “sedentary exercisers.” As you can imagine, the more you move throughout the day, the better your health markers are.
Similar articles popped up a couple years before COVID. Standing desks grew in popularity. Yoga balls replaced office chairs. We started drinking more water so we would walk to the bathroom more frequently. Then the pandemic hit and we all started working from home. Many of us still are.
When it comes to wellness, remote work opens up more time and access to a daily fitness regimen, but reduces the micro-exercise opportunities we get in the office. We can use our commute time to exercise or make a healthy breakfast. We can hit the gym at lunch, and nobody knows that we’re wearing our yoga pants all day. But the walk to the bathroom at home is far shorter than in the office. We’re Zooming into meetings instead of walking to the conference room. We take ten steps to the kitchen instead of grabbing a sandwich down the street. The natural disruptions of office life that get us out of our chairs don’t happen at home, and we go longer and longer without standing up.
In this new age of remote work, we have to be proactive in finding time to move. Luckily, we don’t need to be breaking a sweat mid-workday to graduate from “active couch potato” to “mover.” Here are some ideas to get you there.
Set an alarm to go off every hour
Let’s be honest, you aren’t going to remember to get up every hour without a reminder. Time always passes faster than we think. Just set your timer to go off in 60 minutes. When it goes off, hit repeat, and do a little moving.
5 minute Pilates class
The hardest part of moving throughout the day is figuring out what to do. Yes, you could go for a walk around the block, but leaving your house in the middle of your flow state is inconvenient. You want to move, but you don’t want to derail yourself. The best solution is to leave the thinking to someone else. Opt for one of the 5 minute workouts offered by your favorite fitness app. You can just tip yourself off your chair, onto the reformer or mat, and be back online in 5 minutes 30 seconds.
Movement meditation
Some days are not meant for exercise. Some days are chair days, bed days, and even floor days. On days like this, an hourly movement meditation would do you some good– particularly the horizontal movement meditations. You’ll get to stretch your body, feel your feelings, and get a little movement in, all while honoring your god-given right to wallow in bed.
Check out the 5 minute classes and Movement Meditations offered in Somato's app!