When you work from home you are responsible for managing your own time. This is difficult for many people. Working from home is sort of like being in a permanent and distant consulting position where you are trusted to bring value.
Working from home is diet entrepreneurship.
People working from home can be more productive compared to working in an office. In an office full of 50 people, you have 50 potential distractions. People who need to go into the office for their function or who are more productive there should continue to go in. Even if you go into an office, these strategies may help you exercise more. Companies that can institute remote work and refuse to are tyrannical. Organizations that prefer control over trust should be avoided and neglected so they will burn out or be forced to change. Society grows with trust and declines when control over others is preferred.
The time you save from in-person workplace distractions can be repurposed into time used for physical training.
The morning commute that required driving can now be you walking a few kilometers in the morning. You can do multiple sets of an exercise in a 1-2 minute break from the desk, like kettlebell swings. An adjustable kettlebell replaces 10 kettlebells.
You can also pick the desk you want when working from home, like a standing desk which burns 10-20% more compared to sitting. Apex Desks are excellent and reasonably priced for your first quality desk. Standing can increase your focus depending on what you are working on. While working from home we want to build and continually refine our workspace so that it is most productive and enriching for our bodies, minds, and spirits.
Below are ways you can exercise from home while working from home.
Movement patterns
Do something active whenever you leave your desk. If you go to the bathroom or get a snack, take three laps around the house before your destination. Consider this for all times you leave your seat. If you have to go up or down the stairs, do it 4-5 times then to your destination. You can also do mini workouts when you have to get up, calf raises, abs, etc.
Lay a yoga matt in your office space for stretching breaks and core training.
Get dumbbells in your office, and do mini workouts every day when you stand up for something. Do a set when you leave the room and when you return. If you are training chest on Friday, and it’s Monday, do 5-8 sets of chest exercises during the workday with Bowflex adjustable dumbbells. You will recover by chest day and your brain will work better today. Look for areas of opportunity for more training.
The body is like a puppy to the parental mind. It’s only happy if it’s exhausted from exercise.
Timed breaks
Use timer cubes or an alternative timer like your phone to get up periodically, say every 30 minutes, one hour, or two hours. If you’re on a mean tear keep going beyond two hours. An hourglass looks good on any desk and is a functional timer.
If you’re in flow you don’t have to take a break. A non-flow momentum can be returned to with ease if you take a break. As you continue to do deep work sessions, it will take less effort to get back into a focused, flow-state of mind.
On your breaks you can train with items around the house. You should perpetually collect items for the home that you can use for training. No matter your wealth, you can do this. Alternative and creative training solutions are encouraged.
You can buy inexpensive training tools. Having a home gym doesn’t mean you spend $5,000 for a top-of-the-line power cage, you can spend $50 on small, miscellaneous accessories to get extra training in. However, if you can afford an expensive, high-end gym you should buy one.
All individuals must collect inventory that increases their physical performance throughout their lives. This includes a “mental inventory” of new training methods and tactics
You can train calisthenics with the same strategy as doing something whenever you get up or take a break. Push-ups, calf raises, sit-ups, and more. If you’re stuck on a mental task, often you can refresh your mind with a little training. Understand that body, mind, and spirit all act as legs to the stool of your life. All legs must be maintained to support you.
Daily walks
Daily walks outside are excellent. You don’t need an hour for lunch just for eating. Have your food prepared or eat things that are easy to prepare. If it only takes 10 minutes to eat, you can walk for 50. You can also take a few breaks for a walk outside. If there are trails or other places in nature nearby, even better.
Consider walking before work starts and once it ends. Training before work and after work can act as a intermission between objectives.
If you’re working in person, you should also consider eating and walking. Gossiping is a waste of time.
While you walk you can listen to podcasts or audiobooks. Think about how many books you can “read” a year if you walk for 50 minutes every weekday.
We can give you free audiobooks on Audible:
- Transformed: A Navy SEAL’s Unlikely Journey from the Throne of Africa, to the Streets of the Bronx, to Defying All Odds
- How I Built This: The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World’s Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs
Being surrounded by life can make you feel alive. That’s one reason why you should have houseplants. NASA studied plants to see which ones were best at cleaning toxins out of space stations.
Small muscles at your desk
You can train forearms, hands, and fingers while sitting at your desk with small accessories. Working out your forearms and hands will make you stronger in every other exercise you do. You can also rehab your hands at the desk.
guide (60 lbs) | Sport (80 lbs) | Trainer (100 lbs) | Point Five (120 lbs) | No .1 (140 lbs) | No. 1.5 (167.5 lbs) | Caddy
Captains of Crush are the official grip trainers and challenges for the world’s strongest man competition, as well as the world arm wrestling competition. These tension grips have existed since the early 20th century but became the modern handled apparatus in the 1960s. Only six people certifiably closed the most difficult grippers.
The “beginner” gripper is considered the trainer (100 lbs). However, if you do not lift weights frequently, or do not have a firm grip, you may want to start off on a lower gripper.
There are various other hand and grip exercise apparatuses you can find online. Another good addition is individual finger-trainers. For rehabbing your hands, Iron Mind, the company who makes the Captains of Crush grippers, sell expand-your-hand bands at a low cost that reduce pain and help with tennis elbow and carpal tunnel syndrome. If you type most of the day, you need to do some kind of maintenance for your hands.
Internal muscles
While sitting at your desk, you can do Keagles and tongue presses.
Kegel exercises for men improve sexual function and bladder control. To do a kegel, flex the muscle control that stops the flow of urine like when you are peeing. This can be done with reps and sets while sitting at your desk. Doing three sets of 20 every day will make a significant impact on your health.
Tongue presses
Tongue presses were invented by Dr. Mew, the Dentist who advocates for orthotropics and the Mew Method, which thousands have used to improve their jawlines, make their face more aesthetic, correct bite issues, and improve oral health and function in general.
The tongue-press is more complicated than doing Kegels as tongue-pressing is related to having proper tongue posture, which most do not. To tongue press, you press your tongue as hard as you comfortably can against the roof of your mouth, for reps. The video above from Dr. Mew will help explain the process.
You can even do Kegels and Tongue Presses at the same time, for sets and reps, multiple times per day.
Last note
A workout tracking app or tool should be incorporated so you can measure your results. Think about how rewarding it will be to have multiple micro-training sessions a day, as well as a full training day.
By tracking your performance, you will see the amount of volume you lifted, the distance you traveled, or whatever metrics you are tracking associated with your training.
Train your body while working from home.