Top 3 Things to Do to Stay Healthy While Working on Your Desk

Staying healthy can be difficult in the best circumstances and it can be especially challenging if you work on a desk job for six or more hours a day.

Studies have reported that sitting too much is the new smoking – hence, increasing the probability of diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

In today’s fast paced- technology driven culture, the internet has become more and more part of the daily routine, it becomes quite easy to forget time and not knowing that the hours have passed. So, whether you are an outdoor person or a couch potato, it is highly probable that a sedentary desk job will bind you to your chair for the majority of the eight hours of the day.

Thankfully, there are only 3 major things you need to do to stay healthy and still keep working on your desk.

Set a Schedule to Get Up and Move

The most important thing to do is to remember to take a good 5-10 minute break every hour. It can be 5 minutes every 30 minutes or 10 minutes every hour. This isn’t about working out – but it’s about creating increments of moderate activity throughout the day.

You can set up an alarm to remind you every 30 minutes to stand up and you can spread your activity to walking around the office, using the restroom, doing stretches, mini exercises for your eyes and neck, or wrist exercises if you do a lot of keyboard typing. Taking short breaks maintain focus and help you from feeling mentally and physically drained after work.

Eating Your Meals on Time

Your schedule can very much be hectic, so make sure that you have allocated lunch time on your calendar and block it off. It is not new that schedule dictates unhealthy eating habits – so make sure to schedule those meals and maintain a healthy diet. Lunch breaks can help boost concentration and energy levels.

Maintain Proper Posture

The right posture is probably the most important way in staying healthy with a desk job. Good posture is important to overall health in general and a poor posture is something that every office-based employee should consider throughout their day.

Working with a computer especially puts a strain on your neck and spine as you get drawn to the screen. Make sure to always keep your back straight and feet on the ground, and keep spine and neck lined up. Practice chin retractions, or making a double chin – it is the best exercise for your upper back and neck.

The moral here is to make sure you get up every hour, eat your meals on time and maintain proper posture. Unless you are overweight – you do not need to exercise 30 minutes a day to counter the negative effects of sitting. But it is still beneficial if you incorporate a 30 minute workout 3 or 4 times a week to maintain a healthy lifestyle and counteract the negative effects of prolong sitting.