STAND UP PART 2: QUICK FIX
BY JASON JOHNSON
QUICK FIX:
This can easily be corrected if we just take the time to do it. Starting today, set your watch or Microsoft Outlook alarm calendar to go off every 30-40 minutes. This is your cue to get up from your chair and spend a few minutes in an upright position throughout the day.
Do you ever notice how great you feel after getting up and taking a short walk or performing a quick stretch? Think about literally sitting through a 2 hour meeting. And think about how great you felt when the meeting finally ended and you were able to stand up and walk around.
What about those long family road trips when you just couldn’t wait to get out of the car and stretch your legs? That’s what we are after here, but let’s do it much more often during the day. Here are a few suggestions:
- Walk around, go to the kitchen, walk down to your co-worker’s office instead of calling/e-mailing.
- conduct your next meeting standing up
- stand up during your next phone call (as a bonus, this will also make your voice sound clearer, stronger and more confident)
- eat your lunch at the counter while standing
- read one of your TPS reports while standing
This is simple, and it can and will go a long way to help keep your body get out of those unwanted seated positions all day, and chances are, you’ll start to feel better in no time.
An added benefit: standing also burns calories. Your muscles, joints and tendons have to work and expend energy to support your body weight as you stand.
The gold-standard for performing most exercises is to perform them standing rather than sitting. Why sit down on a bench and perform a seated dumbbell military shoulder press, when you can burn more calories by engaging more muscles and challenging your core at the same time, by performing the exercise standing?
So starting right now…..STAND UP!!!!
