WELLBEING - If you sit at a desk all day, this is the best workout for you!

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Summary - 

If you work a 9 to 5 desk job or spend large chunks of time sitting and staring into a computer screen, then you’ll want to tune into this episode. Long hours, high stress & sedentary work can wreak havoc on the way the body moves, performs & feels but I’m here with a workout for busy professionals that’s been proven to prevent rather than cure. 

Things I Mention - 

  • A fast-growing condition called ‘Email Apnea’ including common symptoms. 

  • The damaging side-effects of poor posture or desk-related posture.

  • 3x things you’ll want to include in every workout to counteract the negative effects of sitting at a desk all day. 

PLUS, I share an example of a 30min workout that will increase your flexibility, build muscle and improve heart health, lung capacity and your risk of disease. 

Links & Helpful Resources - 

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss out on any of my practical tips & tricks and if you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and a review? Thanks! 

If you're an on-the-go corporate with a standard 9 to 5 desk job, then this episode was both inspired and created for you. Heck, you may even spend longer than that at a desk and you know what, that’s not uncommon these days. 

For busy professionals, long hours, high stress and sedentary work can wreak havoc on the way the body moves, performs and feels. As a Personal Trainer, I’m noticing the physical effects of poor posture or desk-related posture more and more and how this is causing a knock-on effect across so many areas of our life including joint/ muscle pain particularly in the hips, back, shoulders and neck, increased weight, varicose veins and perhaps even more alarmingly, a fast-growing condition known as ‘email apnea’. If you haven’t heard of it, email apnea occurs when people unconsciously hold their breath or practice shallow breathing when responding to email or just working at a desk for extended periods of time. Next time, you sit down to reply to emails, I guarantee that you’ll notice yourself doing this too. There are a stack of major health concerns associated with prolonged shallow breathing and the constant compression of our diaphragms, one of which causes our body to remain in a cyclical state of stress. And we all know that too much stress is about as good as a poke in the eye. 

So with this in mind, today I wanted to share a specific style of workout that was made famous by a man called Marc Penny who became his own real-life guinea pig and has gone on to transform the health of thousands of people who work in demanding jobs and spend long hours at a desk. Marc is the Founder of BuiltLean, he is a Certified PT and Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and has proven that 3x short workouts a week (when designed efficiently as we’ll get into in a moment) is all you need to change your life. 

I recently watched a lecture by Marc who spoke about the three main areas that busy professionals should focus on when exercising to counteract the negative effects of sitting at a desk for most of the day. The three areas are Flexibility - to correct common posture problems associated with sitting and looking down. Strength - particularly exercises that focus on the 7 Primal Movements that our bodies are designed to do, rather than focus on specific body parts (eg. legs). Cardio - to improve overall heart health, lung capacity and risk of disease. 

To achieve the best results and to prevent any future injuries/ ailments, he suggests designing all workouts per week to include the three areas of Flexibility, Strength & Cardio. So having said that, here's an example of what the best 30min workout for a busy professional might look like -

FLEXIBILITY

You’ll tackle flexibility as part of your warm-up and you’ll do it in the first 10mins of your workout. During these 10mins, you’ll want to focus on movement such as foam rolling, stretching, yoga or correct exercises to fix any muscle imbalances or compensations that you may have. 

STRENGTH

For the next 20 minutes, you’re going to focus on strength and building muscle and as I mentioned earlier, Marc suggests focussing on the 7 Primal Movements that the human body is designed to do. The 7 Primal Movements are Squat, Lunge, Push, Pull, Twist, Bend & Gait. 

The Squat & Lunge are quite self-explanatory however I’ll give you a few examples for the remaining 5 Primal Movements. 

Push Exercises include Deadlifts, Push Ups, Bench Press, Overhead Press or Dips. 

Pull Exercises include Rows, Lat Pulldowns, Chin Ups/ Assisted Chin Ups or Curls.

Twist Exercises include Russian Twists, Cable Machine Rotations or a Medicine Ball Toss. 

Bend Exercises include Forward Bends, Side Bends, Back Bends or Oblique Dips. 

Gait Exercises include Walking, Jumping, Running, Crawling etc.

CARDIO

The final 5-10 minutes of your workout should be dedicated to cardio. In fact, it has been proven that rather than jog for 30mins on a treadmill, you can get as good, if not better results from doing 5 to 10mins of sprints. So aim to utilise HIIT instead (high intensity, interval training) by combining short bursts of intense exercises with periods of rest/ lower-intensity exercise. 

It’s all about working smarter, not harder when you’re a busy, on-the-go working woman wanting to counteract the negative effects of sitting at a desk most of the day. 

Elisha CasagrandeFEEL BE LOOK, Brisbane Health Coach, Womens Confidence, Goal Setting, Self Care, Email Apnea, Built Lean, Mark Penny, Desk Related Posture, 9 to 5, Poor Posture