Speaker 1: Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to find time to exercise
Speaker 1: during the work day. Lots of people want to exercise more.
Speaker 1: We know it would be good for our health and
Speaker 1: for our energy. Some people exercise before work or after work,
Speaker 1: and both of these are great options. But sometimes family
Speaker 1: or community commitments make this challenging. Or sometimes people know
Speaker 1: they can only get to the gym one evening or
Speaker 1: morning a week and they want to add more physical
Speaker 1: activity to their lives. So I hear this question a lot.
Speaker 1: Is it possible to exercise during the work day. I
Speaker 1: think it is, even if you work in a normal
Speaker 1: office from nine to five. You just need to get
Speaker 1: a little creative about your time and about how you exercise.
Speaker 1: The first thing to change is your definition of exercise.
Speaker 1: You do not have to change into workout clothes. You
Speaker 1: do not need to sweat hard enough to require a shower,
Speaker 1: You do not need a full hour. Any physical activity
Speaker 1: is better than nothing, and the easiest thing to do
Speaker 1: is walk. If you can take thirty minutes for lunch,
Speaker 1: bring your lunch three days a week and spend twenty
Speaker 1: minutes of your break walking outside I'm also a big
Speaker 1: fan of the walking meeting. A lot of one on
Speaker 1: one meetings could be taken on a walking path or
Speaker 1: a sidewalk near your office. Yes, you'll need to walk
Speaker 1: slowly enough to converse, and you also need to warn
Speaker 1: people at least a day ahead of time so they
Speaker 1: know to bring comfortable shoes, but this is a great
Speaker 1: way to build extra activity into your life. Just as
Speaker 1: a side note, I think it's easier to have challenging
Speaker 1: conversations while walking than if you're staring at the person
Speaker 1: across the conference room table. You can also sneak in
Speaker 1: strength training during bits of downtime. Keep a kettlebell or
Speaker 1: some resistance bands at your desk and do some bicep
Speaker 1: curls in between phone calls. If you've got an office door,
Speaker 1: you might close it and do a few push ups
Speaker 1: or plank poses. If you've got a little bit of
Speaker 1: flexibility in your job and access to changing facilities, then
Speaker 1: a lot more possibilities open up. If you can take
Speaker 1: a thirty minute lunch break five days a week, that
Speaker 1: adds up to a hundred fifty minutes, So maybe your
Speaker 1: boss would let you take forty minutes on three days
Speaker 1: and fifteen minutes on two. That also adds up to
Speaker 1: a hundred fifty minutes. With forty minutes, you could spend
Speaker 1: five minutes changing, twenty five minutes running, and then ten
Speaker 1: minutes making yourself presentable again. That could mean renting off
Speaker 1: if there's a shower, using a shower cap if you
Speaker 1: have long hair so it doesn't get wet, or just
Speaker 1: using some wipes at a little towel. Maybe you don't
Speaker 1: do this on the day you're presenting to the CEO
Speaker 1: in the afternoon, but on a normal Tuesday it could
Speaker 1: be fine. Or maybe you take those hundred fifty minutes
Speaker 1: and to sixty minute chunks and three ten minute chunks.
Speaker 1: In sixty minutes, you could take a forty five minute
Speaker 1: class at a gym next door and still make it
Speaker 1: back for your next call, although it's possible you might
Speaker 1: have to dial in from the elevator. You could also
Speaker 1: just take one long lunch during the week, say sixty
Speaker 1: to seventy minutes, and planned to stay a little later
Speaker 1: or come a little earlier that day. If you combine
Speaker 1: that with a few walking meetings and working out on
Speaker 1: each of the weekend days, you'd still be getting way
Speaker 1: more physical activity than the average person, or you could
Speaker 1: just decide to be bold. People sometimes tell me, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not the kind of person who can just leave
Speaker 1: for an hour at lunch every day to exercise. But
Speaker 1: once a lady told me that she had decided to
Speaker 1: become the kind of person who could leave for an
Speaker 1: hour every day at lunch to exercise. She decided that
Speaker 1: she had built up enough career capital to start going
Speaker 1: to this fifty minute boot camp at one pm at
Speaker 1: a gym next door to her office about four days
Speaker 1: per week, so technically she was gone from her desk
Speaker 1: a lot more than before. But she said, you know what,
Speaker 1: I had my best year ever. She returned from boot
Speaker 1: camp with enough energy to focus for the afternoon. She
Speaker 1: was in better shape, and her company was getting better
Speaker 1: work out of her. I call that win win. If
Speaker 1: you exercise during the work day, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: how you make it work. You can email me at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Podcast at iHeart media dot com, or let
Speaker 1: me know on social media at Before Breakfast Pod. That's
Speaker 1: b E the number four Breakfast p o D. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time,