Let’s face it: an 8-10 hour working day, combined with driving to and from work, juggling kiddie school runs, and squeezing in daily errands leaves us with VERY little time to ourselves. All too often it’s a struggle to fit in a decent workout at the gym or go for a run. In fact, you might find that the only ‘free’ time you have during the day is a one hour lunch break. Heading to the gym during this time might not be feasible, which means you need to find ways to burn calories, relieve stress and increase your heart rate while you’re at work.
So with that in mind, we’ve come up with a few ‘mini’ lunch time workouts.
- Take a pair of walking shoes with you to work and go for a 30 minute brisk walk around your office complex or the neighbourhood
- If you really can’t break away for 30 minutes at one time, then aim for a 15 minute walk before work, during lunch and after work. When you add up the time and energy spent, you should be burning an extra 400-600 calories a day – depending on the pace you walk
- Walking up and down the stairs increases your heart rate and your metabolism. Plus it works to tone your bum and thighs – bonus!
- 30 minutes of walking up and down the stairs at a decent pace will burn off in excess of 500+ calories
- Have a ‘walk and talk meeting’, instead of sitting in the boardroom
- Finally, buy a pedometer and set yourself daily goals of how many steps you’ll take – and challenge yourself to go further when you reach them. Grocery shopping, running errands, it all adds up.
Of course, while these exercise tips can’t compare with a regular gym workout, they DO burn calories, without leaving you drenched in sweat.