Healthy Ways for Working from Home: Fitness

fitness Welcome back to our blog series focused on healthy ways for working from home! We’ve explored many topics together so far, from posture and desk set up, to rejuvenating break ideas for the body and mind. Feel free to check out blog one and two for helpful tips and tricks on reducing muscle pain and increasing focus while working from home. Today we’ll discuss preventing discomfort and enhancing concentration through establishing an easy foundation for fitness at home.

Fitness

Fitness? More like fit-ness whole pizza in my mouth.

Yeah, we have all heard the word fitness and have felt convicted to exercise, but are often confused on how to approach doing so, especially while being stuck at home. The gyms nearby may be closed, or possibly inaccessible due to work schedules conflicting with limited business hours. You could go on a walk or a jog outside, but the weather may not allow for it.

So why even try when it doesn’t seem to line up for you?

Know that you are not alone. A recent international survey indicates that despite the recommendations to stay physically active, there has been a significant decline in exercise levels during the “stay at home” period of COVID-19. Globally, people are sitting a lot, eating extra-frequently, and consuming more unhealthy food compared to before the pandemic (nothing like mac and cheese to pep up a boring afternoon). We are all in this struggle together, and we need to fight to decrease inactive behavior, promote health, and further our fitness.

Its Effect on Whole-Body Health

Studies on fitness show that physical activity can improve your health and fight against the negative effects of diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Exercise also improves mental health, which many of us are struggling with due to social isolation. It is important to boost your fitness for optimal brain power and for bettering thought processes while working from home.

Your body is composed of several muscle groups that contribute to your functioning while you work. You may not notice it, but there are a lot of muscles working to help your body sit and stand with good posture. By adding in physical activity and exercise into your daily at-home routine, you can build up muscle strength and endurance to counter the painful effects of prolonged bad posture while working from home. It’ll also improve the blood flow to your brain to help your concentration!

Fitness = Physical Activity + Exercise

For our purposes, we’ll discuss two different parts of fitness: physical activity and exercise. Physical activity is when we use several large muscle groups to move the body around at moderate to high intensities. This can include hobbies like dancing or even heavy household chores, like vacuuming or mowing the yard. Exercise, on the other hand, is the strengthening of more specific muscle groups in the body. Examples may include different exercises you see at the gym and/or running for building up your heart muscle. Keep reading for some guidelines on physical activity and ideas for exercises at home!

Physical Activity Recommendations

When in doubt, move more and sit less! Start small if you need to. Feel free to get creative with your fitness and find things that you like to do at home that keep you on your feet. I personally enjoy doing yoga and completing household projects, like organizing and decorating. According to an article on fitness from Public Health Reports, physical activity should be performed every day, or at least every other day, to increase your health.

Here are the recommendations on weekly physical activity based on age:

Children age 6 to 17

Kids and teens need at least 60 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous activity. This should include 3 days of strengthening exercises to help with muscle and bone growth (read more below for ideas on how to strengthen from home.)

Adults age 18 to 65

Adults need 30 minutes of moderate intensity activity 5 days per week, or 20 minutes of vigorous activity 3 days a week. This can also be in a combination or moderate and vigorous intensity throughout the week. The 30-minute daily total of moderate intensity can also be achieved in small bouts of 10-minute continuous activity.

How do you find out what is moderate versus high intensity for you? Check out our YouTube video!

Fitness Through Exercise

Now how do you actually build muscle from home without a gym? This is your opportunity to think outside of the box with items around your house and get creative with your fitness. Here are some ideas to try based on strength, endurance, and cardiovascular fitness.

Muscle Strength

Your muscles are made up of different types of muscle fibers. Strengthening specifically focuses of building your “fast-twitch” fibers for fast muscle power. We use these muscle fibers to perform many of the typical gym exercises that one might think of. The goal for strengthening is to only be able to complete 8 to 12 repetitions of an exercise before you’re tired and your form is messed up.

Try this exercise for strong arms:

- - To strengthen your arms with biceps curls, you’ll want to find a bag of books in your house that is heavy enough to challenge you.
  - Stand in front of a mirror and complete 8-12 reps of slow and controlled biceps curls. If you can go onto 13 reps without a challenge, then add more books.
  - If you can only do 8-12 reps before you notice that you body starts trying to fatigue and compensate elsewhere (your shoulder hikes up or your posture starts leaning), then that is your maximum.
  - Once you find your max, take a rest break, and try for another set.
  - Keep completing sets of your 8-12 reps until you notice you cannot do them anymore because of losing form due to muscle fatigue setting in.

Muscle Endurance

To build up fitness through muscle endurance, you’ll want to challenge the “slow-twitch” muscle fibers. This is so that your muscles don’t get tired while you do things like repetitive motions, holding still postures, and walking further distances. Many strengthening exercises can be turned into muscle endurance exercises by changing how many times you do the exercise! It all depends on your fitness goal and what you need to be able to do in your everyday life. The idea of muscle endurance is to be able to do 15-20 repetitions of an exercise before you’re tired and your form gets messed up.

Try this exercise for leg muscle endurance:

- - To strengthen your leg muscle endurance, you’ll want to find a mirror to stand in front of while you do squats.
  - You should be able to do 15 to 20 repetitions before you notice your form starting to compensate (your trunk leans to one side, your knees go forward or move together, or your back starts to arch).
  - You can make squats easier by using a chair to sit and then stand, or more difficult by holding a book to your chest to add some weight.
  - Once you find your max of 15-20 reps, take a rest break, and try for another set.
  - Keep completing sets of your 15-20 reps until you notice you cannot do them anymore because of your form messing up due to muscle fatigue setting in.

Cardiovascular Fitness

play basketball Cardiovascular fitness is the strengthening of your heart to improve blood flow to your muscles. If your heart is pumping blood efficiently, the muscles that hold your body upright while sitting will get enough oxygen and may not get tired as easily while you work from home. The workday may feel less fatiguing when your brain is getting enough nutrients from a healthy beating heart. Great blood flow also helps your working muscles to fight against exhaustion while exercising!

To get your heart to build up strength and endurance, your lungs will have to work harder. You may feel out of breath at first, but this is normal! Increasing your pulse rate during cardiovascular exercise means that your heart muscle needs more oxygen from your lungs.

Simply put: as your heart beats faster, you will breath harder, challenging the lungs and chest muscles. Breathing will become easier as you strengthen this system by doing moderate to vigorous exercise.

Here are some ideas cardiovascular exercise at home:

- - Walking longer distances at an increased pace
  - Jogging or running outside
  - Go for a bike ride
  - Swimming if you have access to a pool
  - Dancing around the house (by yourself or with a friend)
  - Shooting hoops (with a mask on)
  - Jumping rope

Check out our YouTube videos on exercises to try at home for different muscle groups:

Upper Body Exercises

Upper and Lower Back Exercises

Spine and Core

Ankle and Foot

Hip and Knee

Bringing It All Together: Healthy Ways for Working from Home

You made it through the three-part blog journey. Congratulations! We’ve addressed several tips and tricks to help your body stay rejuvenated and pain free while working from home. You have found your best seated posture and sprinkled your workday with rejuvenating mind and body breaks. With a guideline for physical activity and several exercises to try at home, you’re now ready to conquer daily tasks with improved concentration and decreased pain. We’d love to help you with a more tailored and individual approach if you have further questions about healthy ways for working from home. Please contact Back in Step PT to schedule an online or in-person consultation today! Make sure to check out our other blogs and follow us on Instagram and Facebook for additional tips and tricks from Dr. Alyssa Arms, DPT.

Check out our Work from Home Kit!

Guest Blog by Haley Tirado, SPT

Haley Tirado is a second year Student Physical Therapist who attends the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She completed a work study focused on physical therapy research with the medically complex and total joint replacement patient populations. Haley currently works as an intern for Back in Step Physical Therapy.