Five-minute Fitness
December 4th, 2008

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Five-Minute Fitness

Everyone has those days: the phone is ringing off the hook, your contribution for the quarterly report has disappeared off your desk and you were in such a hurry this morning you left your diet-friendly lunch at home. When you have a day like that, exercise is usually one of the last things you want to think about, but getting active, even just for five minutes, can vastly improve your mood and your body at the same time! Do yourself (and everyone else) a favor and squeeze in five minutes of fitness - you'll be glad you did!

Step outside the building and take a brisk walk around the parking lot. Getting out of a stressful atmosphere and to a place where you can think is a huge part of calming your mind and emotions. While you exercise your cardiovascular system and muscles by walking fast, the excess tension in your system gets worked out so you return to work feeling relaxed and refreshed.

Ride the elevator to the bottom floor and then climb the stairs back up to your floor. If your building is four floors or shorter, repeat this. If your office building has no stairs, consider buying an inexpensive workout step and keeping it in your office. The exertion of step climbing helps work out stress and emotion.

Stand about two feet away from your desk, bend at the waist and place your hands on the edge of the desk to help support your body. Hold for thirty seconds and then stand up straight and take several deep breaths. Repeat twice more. Stretching out your back like this help release tension in the spine and shoulders.

Keep a can of tennis balls in a desk drawer and bring two of them out when the atmosphere is tense. Take one tennis ball in each hand and squeeze as hard as you can for eight seconds. Release and relax; then repeat several more times. This helps condition the forearms and increase hand strength as well. Tennis balls can also double as massagers for your feet and back - all this for about three dollars!

Keep a set of resistance bands in your office and take a break to work with them. If you are feeling irritated, take the band with the highest resistance and use it for lateral raises (place one end of the band under your foot and hold the other end in your hand at about waist height; lift the band straight out to the side).

Challenge a co-worker to a speed-walking contest in the parking lot (you may want to switch to flat shoes). Take the stairs down to the lot and see who can walk the perimeter the fastest without actually running. Not only is this good exercise but it is good for a few laughs as well.

Invest in a set of dumbbells to keep at the office. A set with five weights ranging from three to ten pounds is fairly inexpensive and typically comes with its own storage rack. Do some strength building exercises for the arms and back or, if you have a lot of angry energy to work out, use the heaviest weight and do as many bicep curls as possible until your energy wears out. You may not be able to perform more than one or two correctly but it might prevent you from snapping at an unfortunate co-worker.

Take some time out to do stretching. Stretches are a tremendous tool to use against tension and stiffness in the joint and can help you break through the mid-afternoon slump in your energy. If you keep a yoga mat in your office, use that to perform some of the prone stretches (with your door closed!).

Make full use of your office by turning the very walls you're your own workout equipment: stand about eighteen inches away from the wall or door, place your hands on the surface at about shoulder height, and do vertical push-ups. Challenge yourself by moving farther away or changing the position of your hands on the wall. You may even want to try doing one-handed push-ups vertically - it can be a great introduction to doing the real thing

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