Things to do while sitting in a desk all day

Anyone have any ideas how I can incorporate movement, exercise while sitting at a desk.  Right now I purposely circle the floor I'm on if I want to go tot the bathroom or water cooler.  I know I look a little silly to my coworkers as I am walking around the building to get some water.  When I talk on the phone, I stand up and walk in place.   I am trying to walk around my floor every hour on the hour (as long as I am not in a meeting etc.)   Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

i take it there are no stairs in your building? it there are, do a run up or down the stair well, use the rest room on a different floor and take the stairs. this is fabulous for stress release as well! 

every two hours or so, a walk around the block. just pretend your a smoker but go for a brisk little walk instead of whatever it is they do. 

i stand at the desk alot. you could do squats, or hold a "chair pose" with out the chair every once in a while. 

or get one of those balls to sit on, so your always working torso muscles. 

sometimes i pick my feet up off the floor and hold my legs in space. there are a couple different ways to do this. 

posture awareness: practice spine straight, breathe deep lengthen spine, like in yoga, pull in abs, etc. maybe on the other part of the (half) hour when you aren't pacing the floor, running stairs, etc. 

have fun. great question!

some people have set up a task in Outlook that sends them random workout orders through the day - "do 10 pushups", "walk around the office", "10 sun salutations camouflaged as looking for something under your desk" and other moves from the "office yoga" books;)

My daily schedule looks like this: fill up water bottle, use washroom, go to fridge for snack/lunch, repeat. Drinking lots of water makes me get up out of my seat at least every 30 mins!

I bring my lunch almost every day & eat it at my desk. Before I eat, I try to go for a short walk & take the stairs back to my office.

Don't forget isometrics. 

I do the same thing.  I walk the whole way around the building to use the rest room, get to the printer or  get coffee.

We have two offices separated by 4 floors.  I work on the 1st floor, and whenever I have to go up to the 4th floor, I sprint up the stairs as fast as I can.   (Unless someone else is in the stairwell...)  I consider it some mid-day HIIT... 

These are some great ideas.  I need to work up the nerver to use a bathroom on a different floor.  I am picturing the looks I will get...each floor is a different business unit and I do not have any interaction with them for any reason.  LOL.  But I am trying to increase my steps so I gotta do what i gotta do!

Original Post by fayeonherway:

These are some great ideas.  I need to work up the nerver to use a bathroom on a different floor.  I am picturing the looks I will get...each floor is a different business unit and I do not have any interaction with them for any reason.  LOL.  But I am trying to increase my steps so I gotta do what i gotta do!

 If anyone asks, just say "oh, the washroom on my floor was full so I tried a different floor" or "our water cooler was empty".

since you're drinking a lot, you're gonna go to the bathroom a lot. Everytime you go to the bathroom, do 20 squats in the stall. I know it sounds odd but it's one way to keep moving. So if you go to the bathroom, say 5 times in 1 day, then you've already done 100 squats that whole day.

I do squats in the bathroom as well.  I sometimes practice my warrior stance, or I will slip off my shoes and jog for a minute or two (we have a big spacious invididual stall bathroom). 

I do "butt crunches" at my desk.  Squeeze your glutes, sitting upright.  Practice holding longer and longer.  I also have a stress ball that I squeeze between my knees.  This last one really made me sore when I first started doing it.  No one ever notices I'm doing any of this either.  The butt crunches make you look like you're bobbing up and down a little, but sometimes I'll just do them real slow, but no ones really ever looking right at me anyway. 

Sit on the front edge of your chair and reach your arms to grab behind you the bottom part of the back of chair.  Squeeze the back of chair with your hands and hold for 10 seconds and then release. 

Happy worksercising!

every bit of extra movement you incorporate into your daily life will burn some amount of calories, however minute.  I heard that people sitting at a desk all day shake their feet in place while they work.  Like a nervous twitch, just sit down, feet flat on the ground and use the tip of your feet to bounce the rest of your leg up and down.  Slight movement but at a fast pace, keeps you awake and over long periods of time burns a slight amount of calories.

Do that when you are working at your desk, not in place of the bathroom stall squats, thats actually a really cool idea...

Good luck and hope that helps.

I def. plan on trying the squats!  Today I took the stairs (5 floors) and went for a walk around the parking deck.  I also bought a pedometer and hopefully I can figure it out by tommorow to track my steps.

I walk on my 2 15 min breaks each day, do I input that into my activity or not since its short?

Original Post by faithhopelove76:

since you're drinking a lot, you're gonna go to the bathroom a lot. Everytime you go to the bathroom, do 20 squats in the stall. I know it sounds odd but it's one way to keep moving. So if you go to the bathroom, say 5 times in 1 day, then you've already done 100 squats that whole day.

 Brilliant idea! Cheers :)

every time I go to the Lady's room I do two sets of 15 squats. at my desk every 30mins I sit closer to the edge of my seat and lift my legs and push in and out do 2 sets of 15 also.

good job on taking the stairs and going for a walk Faye! Every little thing counts. Another thing to try in the bathrrom or at your desk is the side standing leg lifts.