3 things you must know before you can have an effective office workout

Exercise is a wonderful thing. Before you start or in the early stages of exercise, it is easy to give up due to laziness. However, once you develop a habit, it will become a part of your life, and your attitude towards life will become more optimistic, positive, and action-oriented... In other words, your life will be richer and more beautiful!

After exercise, I like to use this sentence to encourage girls who want to exercise:

"I already know what will happen if I give up; so I just want to hold on, so that I can see myself happier and more beautiful than ever before!"

Back to the point, many people asked me to share small exercises that can be done anytime and anywhere in the office. Of course there are many ways to keep your body moving all the time! However, before sharing these exercises, I hope everyone can have the following understanding of this type of exercise:

1. Exercise in the office has fragmented time and limited seating...the intensity cannot be high!

In other words, the so-called "little exercises anytime and anywhere in the office" cannot help you burn many calories, and it is even less likely that you will lose weight by doing these exercises!

2. If you want to reduce body fat by 70-80%, rely on diet!

So please adjust your diet and throw away all the snacks in the office! During tea time, please refrain from following everyone in eating delicious food, because excess calories will be accumulated as "body fat"!

So, what are the benefits of a little exercise in the office?

In fact, it helps a lot! The most common cause of long hours of sitting at work is incorrect posture: such as "hunchback", "round shoulders", "pelvic tilt"... After long-term posture changes, pain and injuries will follow. Many people's knee pain, sciatica, intervertebral pelvic herniation... are all caused by sitting for a long time!

Then, due to long-term sitting, many muscles will begin to "lose function"! Muscles lose function, have no strength, and are unable to sustain physical activities. The most obvious symptom is of course "body becomes ugly", and the most serious symptom is "loss of health"!

Therefore, make use of the fragmented time at work to use the muscles that have not been working, to prevent them from falling asleep for a long time and losing their functions (you can even use small exercises to wake them up quickly if they are already asleep); it is especially important to relax over-tight muscles moderately, because tense muscles are like tight rubber bands that will pull our body away from the midline!

In the office, use a chair to exercise!

Below are some muscle strengthening exercises that can be done using a chair.

If you are wearing high heels, please remember to take them off. Going barefoot would be a good choice!

When choosing a chair, make sure it is stable and will not slide. Also, please avoid using folding chairs! And remember, do "static stretching" after you finish!

Exercise 1: Use a chair to wake up your hip muscles

The following movements can train the gluteus maximus muscles that have lost their function due to long-term stretching due to sitting for a long time, so that the buttocks muscles can wake up earlier!

1. First, sit on a chair, straighten your chest, press your shoulders down, and make sure your calves are perpendicular to the ground. Cross your arms in front of your chest to avoid relying on your hands for leverage in subsequent movements.

2. Straighten your body and lean forward, stretch one foot with the heel on the ground, and keep the other foot firmly on the ground but keep your center of gravity on the heel.

3. Put your weight on your heels and use your hips to push yourself up.

4. Once you are standing, keep your feet in place and use your hip strength again to slowly sit back on the chair, also keeping your body straight. Do 10-20 times on one foot and then switch sides.

Exercise 2: Use a chair to strengthen your core muscles

This movement can train the deep core muscles. Only when the deep core muscles are strong enough can they withstand more exercise.

1. First, support your elbows on a chair and do the plank pose. Remember to tighten your "shoulder blades", "core abdomen", "buttocks" and "thighs" to form a straight line. Then lift one leg forward and bring your knee as close to the chair as possible. Hold this position for 10 seconds!

2. Then change your foot and lift it forward, and stay still for 10 seconds. Please take turns with your feet, and keep the left and right sides still twice in a row, that is, do this exercise for at least 40 seconds!

Exercise 3: Use a chair to strengthen the core, pectoralis major and triceps

The narrow version of push-ups using a chair requires core strength support, so please be able to do the plank style easily before challenging this movement. The narrow version of push-ups can train more triceps, which is the part of the flexor sleeve.

1. Support your hands on a chair and do the plank pose, with your arms vertical to the ground, under your thymus. Tighten and exert force on your shoulder blades, core abdomen, buttocks, and thighs.

2. When your elbows are bent to 90 degrees, be sure to coordinate the "shoulder blades", "core abdomen", "buttocks" and "thighs" to exert force, and the whole person is moving in a straight line. When you stand up, be sure to do it in one go. Don't push up your shoulders with your stomach and then pull up your lower body. Repeat the action 20 times.

Chair stretching exercises

All static stretches are done after exercise, but if you don’t exercise that day, you can stretch at any time, the more the better!

For office workers who sit for long periods of time, being in a static posture for a long time is very harmful!

After being in a certain posture for a long time, the muscles will start to become tight and stiff. The fascia will also become tight for a long time. In severe cases, it will form scars and then calcify (this is a very serious condition, not common, but please be mindful just in case!). Stretching out the tight muscles and fascia is actually more urgent than exercising your muscles!

Fascia relaxation is quicker using a roller tool, and muscle stretching can be done with some simple movements.

Please remember that only soft muscles can have a good range of motion, making daily life easier and increasing the difficulty of exercise!

Stretching exercise 1: Use a chair to stretch your chest muscles

Because of long-term use of mobile phones and computers, and being a head-down person, the chest muscles are very likely to become tight and stiff! Regularly stretching the chest muscles can not only avoid shoulder and neck pain, but can even help girls get rid of the bad habit of shrinking their chests, making the chest lines more beautiful!

1. When standing at attention, clasp your palms together, stretch your arms straight, and place them behind your body. Next, lower your body and place your hands on the back of the chair (you can put a coat or towel on the back of the chair to make your hands more comfortable), keeping your spine from bending excessively, until your hands are almost horizontal.

2. Then place one knee on the ground, straighten your chest, keep your head on the extension line of your spine, and maintain the posture for 15-60 seconds. Can be repeated four times.

Stretch Exercise 2: Use a Chair to Stretch the Latissimus Dorsi

Usually, people who look down at their phones have tight chest muscles as well as tight latissimus dorsi muscles. So you can stretch your latissimus dorsi muscles in the following posture. Repeat the stretch for 15-60 seconds four times.

Stretch Exercise 3: Stretch the Gluteus Maximus Using a Chair

Office workers usually sit for a long time, so please do the following stretches after doing hip muscle training.

1. Sit on a chair, lift one foot over the other, and keep your chest up.

2. Relax your body and press down, hold for 15-60 seconds and then switch sides. This can be repeated four times on one side.

Please remember that exercise is a life attitude. It must be internalized into a habit. Only with accumulation over time can you see wonderful results!