Learning how to stay fit is a challenge for busy career focused professionals. Nowadays they say sitting is the new smoking which is bad news for those of us who make a living sitting in front of a computer. The damage to your body compounds if you are extremely busy and don’t have the time to get to the gym. Exercising is also an essential tool for success as an entrepreneur and in the high stress world of media and advertising. Exercise is essential to fighting of depression and managing stress. Being fit is also important to living a happy and fulfilling life.
Dr. -Michael Craig Miller, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School says,” For some people it works as well as antidepressants, although exercise alone isn’t enough for someone with severe depression.”
I’m an advertising executive, entrepreneur and know first hand how much of a struggle it is to get to the gym. Luckily prior to working in advertising I was a personal trainer at Equinox and fought bare knuckle karate so I developed a few tricks to ensure that I always got a work out in during my work day especially when I had an upcoming fight.
How to stay fit using a four step routine
1. Set a timer to remind yourself to drink water
Download this app or set a timer that reminds you to drink water every two hours. Then make sure that you don’t keep water at your desk. First staying hydrated is extremely good for your health. Second you want to force yourself to get out of your seat and walk to a water source. This gets your blood flowing, takes you out of the seated position and gives you a little break. All these things will make you more productive and will set you up for the next step. As you learn how to stay fit you will see that ninety percent of getting and staying fit is about diet. Drinking more water should be part of the foundation of your diet.
Pro tip: Finish your water before you get back to your desk. Don’t be wasteful. Reuse the same cup.
2. Work out in the bathroom
I know this sounds like a terrible idea but I’m telling you its clutch. Now that you are drinking more water you will naturally have to hit the head more often. This is a perfect opportunity for you to get a quick work out in. This works best if you have a single person bathroom. If you don’t you can still do it but it can get awkward real quickly.
Here is the work out:
One set:
Push-ups: 20
Squats: 20
Make it easier
If you can’t do a full push up use the wall or the sink.
If you can’t do a full squat put the toilet lid down and squat until you’re butt touches and then stand right back up.
Make it harder
Put your feet on the toilet or the sink for the push-ups.
Hold each squat for five seconds at the bottom then come back up.
Do twenty burpes if you have the room.
You only need to do one set because you are going to be doing this every time you have to use the bath room. This means if you go three times you will be doing sixty push-ups and squats. This works because no one wants to get sweaty at work but you are still doing enough of a work out to lose weight and build muscle. Feel free to add exercises to the routine.
Pro tip: Don’t be nasty. Lay two pieces of paper on the floor for the push-ups. 😉
3. Setup your desk correctly
Now that you are moving around, drinking more water and getting your bathroom workouts in we have to make sure you are setup correctly when you are sitting. I recently started having back pain so naturally I complained to my wife. My wife just happens to be a Physical Therapist and she gave me the solution. She told me to buy a laptop stand, get a mouse and get a keyboard. Elevating the laptop and having the keyboard puts your body in better alignment. Before this I was hunched over my keyboard pounding away like a caveman. This led to terrible back pain to a point where sitting was extremely uncomfortable. Having this setup makes it harder for me to hunch and stopped my back pain. It literally vanished.
4. Get better sleep
Sleep is extremely important part of being mentally and physically fit. Invest in a good hybrid mattress that has a sleep tracker to monitor how you sleep. My wife and I just got ours from Tomorrow Sleep. They make a fantastic mattress. I make sure I get at least eight hours of sleep a night. There is a myth in the business world that says you have to not sleep to be successful. This is false! Sometimes you will lose sleep but that should not be the norm. When you do sleep you need to make sure you are using technology to ensure you get the best sleep. This will help you recover quicker from your new work out routine. Quality sleep matters!
How to get fit – Final thoughts
Learning to stay fit is a process and should be a long term goal. Focus on building fitness into your lifestyle instead of getting trapped in diet fads. If you follow this advice you will literally build fitness into your daily routine. This is the most efficient way of doing it. It takes a bit of will power to stay consistent but stick with it. Start by trying this routine three times a week. It will pay a good return if you invest in it. I’d love to hear your results from this so please leave them in the comments.
