Desk Jockeys Need Deskercise!

Every Desk Jockey understands the stiff and sleepy feeling that hits around 2:30 nearly every afternoon. Sitting all day staring at the screen and banging away on the keyboard is exhausting and potentially hazardous to your health.*

To save us from looking like the guy pictured above, I made a video of a very short and simple routine you can do at your desk to loosen your stiff muscles, increase your blood & oxygen flow, and wake you out of the afternoon coma.

Stretches

Neck Roll

Shoulder Roll

One Arm Hug

Overhead Side Stretch

Triceps stretch

Shoulder Blade Squeeze

Spinal Twist

Hand/ Wrist Stretch

Quads & Hammy Stretch

Strength

Desk Dips

Desk Pushups

Seated Leg Lift

Chair Squat

Forward Lunge

Tippy Toes

One Leg Balance

Wall Sit

Coach tips:

1. Set a recurring appointment on your calendar every afternoon for 10 minutes to go through this routine. It is sure to help you power through the rest of your day.
2. Invite your cubical neighbors to join you. Though I don’t think it looks silly to do these moves on your own, it will be super cool to have a small group Deskercising together. All the cool kids are doing it!
3. Skip the caffeine fix and sugary snacks. These will spike your blood sugar for 20 minutes, but then you crash again which makes you feel more tired and hungry than before. Instead, go for a big drink of water or a piece of whole fruit for your afternoon snack.
4. Remember that healthy and alert employees are more productive. In fact, your health is part of your job. Don’t feel guilty about taking this short break because you are too busy. Your boss will thank you for taking care of yourself so you can keep doing quality work.
5. Deskercise is a great help to the afternoon slump, but it is not a replacement for regular exercise. Target 30 mins of moderate to intense exercise 4-5 times a week for best results. Get access to 100’s of world-class fitness programs from yoga to dance to weightlifting that you can do at home by clicking HERE.

*While some research suggests that “sitting is the new smoking”, other research argues that maybe sitting isn’t as bad as we think. However, virtually all research agrees that people in general are far less physically active than previous generations and we need to move more to optimize our health. I agree. Let’s get moving people!