Optimize work breaks with exercise

The feeling that you are wasting away physically, if not mentally, while at work, doesn’t have to be one you experience all that often.
Perhaps you take walks at lunchtime, or go to the gym before or after work most days.
This is fine, but if you are not supplementing by doing some kind of physical exercise while at work, you are missing out on the opportunity for not only increased levels of personal fitness, but also on professional gains in performance and productivity while on the job.
We all know exercise is good for you and we try to plan our days and evenings so as to be sure we are getting enough of it.
The fact is, however, most of us are not getting enough regular exercise of any kind—at or away from work.
I have taken many tacks regarding exercise over the years so as to help avoid burnout at the office.
My job is particularly stressful at various times of the year when the industry experiences peak volume seasons.
No matter how much of a regular routine I may be in as far as working out, running and getting enough exercise, inadvertently during these peak seasons when seemingly every part of my existence becomes solely eat, work and sleep—my workouts tend to start falling by the wayside in favor of sleep.
When you are very busy at work and putting in long hours, sleep comes at a premium and I personally find myself indulging in mostly sleep during my precious free time from eating and working.
It’s a vicious cycle and I find it pretty challenging to keep up my regular workouts. In fact, they have historically tailed off and at times stopped altogether during long, extended peak stretches where I’m pushing myself really hard.
Eating and sleeping alone to offset all those long hours at work, is not enough.
Eventually the machine that is your body wears down; you grow weary and you do not feel well. Many of us eventually get sick for these reasons, too, and typically when we least can afford to do so.
A lot of you might be thinking it is difficult to exercise while at work.
This may be true.
What I will suggest to you, though, is that your life will become much more difficult, if you do not!
We are feeling great when we are having regular exercise over an extended period of time.
When work picks up to the point that you start skipping your workouts due to stress, fatigue and long hours, it’s only a matter of time before your body reacts negatively–you don’t feel well and you become ill.
If you are performing some kind of calisthenics or exercise while at work during peak or non-peak times, you will at least reap the benefits of increased alertness and improved well-being–especially on those days when you end up foregoing the gym after a particularly grueling day at the mill.
The best way to establish something at work exercise-wise (like all physical fitness routines, I believe), is to make it fun.
Some of us shoot wadded up paper balls into wastebaskets during our breaks. Some of us play catch with said paper balls. Some of us fly paper airplanes and retrieve them. Some of us find a corner and do some jumping jacks or deep knee bends. Some of us put our hands on our sides and do trunk rotations.
I’ve been doing a 100-day pushup challenge and am on day 60 or so, I believe. I have to do 60 pushups today. I do pushups at work all the time when I’m on break. I also do lunges and planks. I know, I’m crazy like that.
You should be too, though. After all, work doesn’t have to be a drag.
Get out of your chair, stretch and exercise! Enjoy gains in your productivity and feel great, too–all at the same time!
Now you’re really on to something!
Do you exercise at work? If so, what do you do and how do you make it fun?