How to Keep Fit When Working from Home

Working from home has turned out to be quite a large roadblock to our health and fitness routines. We’ve been glued to our desks while bouncing from Zoom call to Slack messages to emails, and then relaxing for a Netflix binge session to wind down for the day.

Since the pandemic began some of us have found that increased stress, uncertainty, mixed up routines, and sedentary lifestyle, have led to less energy, pants that don’t zip up like they used to, poor sleep, and more overwhelm. This sedentary lifestyle has a tremendous impact on our overall health and well-being, and it even plays a major role in the severity of infectious diseases like COVID-19.

A recent study in Sweden of 279,455 adults found that low cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), higher BMI, and high blood pressure was associated with more severe COVID-19 outcomes. This emphasizes the importance of interventions to maintain or increase CRF in the general population to strengthen the resilience to severe COVID-19, especially in high-risk individuals.

To help you navigate this, I’ve got 3 strategies you can use starting today to reclaim your health and fitness without it taking over your life, or following any unrealistic workout programs.

1. Walk more. In a recent study from University of Texas, researchers found that reduced daily steps lowered subjects' ability to oxidize fat, and increased triglyceride levels. They defined exercise resistance as a condition in which chronic physical inactivity blunts the positive, acute cardiovascular and metabolic adaptation you’d normally see from exercise.
   
   Walking is seriously underrated, yet it is one the most impressive forms of activity that is associated with improvements in mood, health, creativity, longevity, and more!


2. Make it purposeful. Don’t like counting your steps? Neither do I. So make the movement purposeful. We’re more likely to stick with a plan when we have a greater sense of purpose for doing the activity. Find ways of getting up to move more like cleaning, gardening, shovelling, etc.
   
   Whatever you do, it doesn’t have to be about hitting a specific step goal. That will naturally take care of itself when you find more ways to move in a meaningful way.


3. Schedule it in advance. You don’t find time, and it doesn’t magically fall into your lap. You must make time. And this is a skill in and of itself. Getting good at scheduling requires practice. One way that I like to think of this is about priority management over time management. You can simply start with a 10 minute daily walk and build from there. Start taking action today. Don’t wait for the perfect time because it will never arrive.
   
   The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The next best time is now. - Chinese Proverb

Signup to Paul's growing mailing list to get a FREE copy of The Health In Progress Archive. Signup Now!