Working 'OUT' at Home

Over the last year working from home has become the new norm, but how has this change impacted our physical and mental health?

How do you keep up your activity levels when you work from home? 

Do you struggle to stick to a routine or find it easy to make time to exercise?

In my experience of working from home over the last year, I have learned to fully appreciate how much movement we did during the day without realising it and how important even the smallest movement is, for our bodies and our minds to remain healthy.

When you first imagine working from home, it sounds like it offers the best of both worlds. It can be an enviable office environment, allow a degree of flexibility into your schedule, the possibility of more family time and no commute! So, staying active when working from home should be easy. Surely, being at home affords you more time to spend on exercise? 

However, the reality can be somewhat different. 

There are two main problems when working from home.

1. Sitting disease - When we have a busy workload, we sit until we have got it done, and before you know it, hours have gone by and you have not moved from your chair. Without the incidental movements involved in getting to a place of work we are even less active than before.

Sitting disease refers to the harm caused by spending a longer time than recommended sitting down and increased levels of inactivity.

Sitting down for too long slows the metabolism and this can lead to obesity, raised sugar levels, increased blood pressure and abnormal cholesterol levels. Individually and collectively, these issues can contribute to heart disease, breast cancer, colon cancer and type 2 diabetes. 

There are also related signs to watch out for: reduced energy, increased weight gain, poor sleep, poor concentration and memory, reduced productivity, lower mood levels and poor posture, musculoskeletal problems, backache, and neck ache.

Sitting at a desk working from home, homeschooling, driving to work, eating, or watching TV all contribute to hours spent sitting in a day.

It is estimated that sitting for more than 6 hours a day has a significant negative impact on our health. Pre-pandemic, on average, British people sat 8.9 hours a day. It is likely this will have increased over the last year.

2. Blurring of work/life boundaries - we can easily quickly fall into routines that do not prioritise healthy activity and lose the boundaries between work and personal life. So not only is there a risk to our physical health, working from home can also affect our mental health too, offering us little headspace from either work or home.

The Royal Society for Public Health conducted a survey in Feb 2021 to discover the mental and physical health impacts of home working during COVID-19. Here are some of the results.

• People who switched to working from home as a result of Covid-19 had experienced health and wellbeing impacts, with the most common being feeling less connected to colleagues (67%), taking less exercise (46%), developing musculoskeletal problems (39%) and disturbed sleep (37%)
• Over one in four (26%) are working from home from either a sofa or a bedroom
• Nearly half (48%) of people who work from a sofa or bedroom said they had developed musculoskeletal problems 
• Women were more likely than men to feel isolated (58% of women V 39% of men) and develop musculoskeletal problems (44% of women V 29% of men) as a result of working from home

However, there are advantages to working from home that with the right approach and a bit of tweaking can result in you actually exercising more consistently and being more active. 

Advantages of working and working out at home:

• More flexibility – you can exercise anytime during day when it suits you and your schedule and so you remain consistent
• More time - without a commute to work or to an exercise class you can use that time to exercise. 
• No childcare needed – you can exercise at home whilst the children are in bed asleep or happy playing. 

How to be more active and do exercise when working from home:

1. Stand up while working

Prolonged standing burns more calories than sitting. By replacing two hours sitting each day with using a standing desk can burn up to 130 calories a week, and may improve concentration. 

2. Take “exercise snacks”

Short bursts of exercise – or “exercise snacks” – are beneficial for your health. Previously, it was thought bouts of exercise needed to last longer than ten minutes to be beneficial to our health – but recent research indicates activity of any duration is good for health. Regular exercise also improves memory.

Look for small opportunities for activity, movement, exercise throughout your day – e.g. if you are downstairs, go upstairs to the toilet.

3. Schedule Active meetings

Getting out the house on a regular basis is important if you work at home. A great way to incorporate exercise into your work is by arranging an active meeting. Instead of sitting down with a coffee (and the inevitable cake!), why not go for a walk instead? Researchers at Stanford University have discovered that walking boosts creative inspiration, which is probably why you always feel full of ideas during a walk with the dog.

4. Fidget!

Were you ever told off as a child for fidgeting in your seat? Well, all that energy serves a good purpose as moving more whilst you are at your desk helps untense your muscles. 

5. Plan in a daily Bitesize Pilates Workout

If the thought of incorporating exercise into your week seems a little daunting, Bitesize Pilates can be done in the privacy of your own home where there is no pressure, and it doesn’t have to be long.

Here's a 10 minute workout for you!

Whilst you can make promises to yourself that you will exercise every day, the chances are you will find excuses to miss it out. Just as you schedule your diary to organise your workload and meetings, you should plan in your exercise.

Treat exercise with the same priority as a phone call with a client. Blocking out time away from your desk means that you are more likely to do it.

Play around with different times in the day to find what suits you. Some people will be able to fit in exercise in the mornings by walking the kids to school and following up with a jog, others may benefit from a lunchtime session away from their desk. Forcing yourself to follow a routine that does not feel right sets you up for failure as you won’t stick to it.

6. Set Realistic goals

Failure at the first exercise hurdle is usually because we pile the pressure on ourselves. Getting out of bed at 5.30am to jog maybe some people’s idea of pleasure, but for others, it will involve a lot of pain.

Setting unrealistic goals will establish working out as a chore to be endured. Cut yourself some slack and remind yourself that it’s ok not to get out of bed at 5.30am if you don’t want to. There are plenty of other ways you can plan to keep active whilst working from home and you can experiment with several methods until you find the balance that works for you.

If a day has passed and you’ve not left your desk, let alone the house, don’t beat yourself up. Remember that tomorrow is another day and revert back to your calendar to adjust whatever is in your schedule that prevented you from exercising.

If the reason is not necessarily a time one, then take a look at the activity you had planned and ask yourself whether you really wanted to do it. If the answer is no, then try something new until you find one that you enjoy doing!

Remember, any movement is better than none – and the more the better. When working from home, make a special effort to build activity into your day for both your mental and physical health.

I hope I’ve inspired you to incorporate more exercise into your day. 

When working from home it is even more important that you have a plan for working out at home. That you have an approach that is enjoyable, achievable and sustainable.

Please join my Free Facebook group ‘Bitesize Pilates for Busy Women’

And visit my website to find out more: www.gilaarcherpilates.com