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Fitness
It’s hard prioritising. It’s tough making the time to ‘fit’ everything into a day. We are often so many people all rolled into one. We juggle from managing a career, being a parent, a spouse, a son/ daughter, a home-maker, etc, etc. God, the list is unending! Time being of the essence, even if you’re motivated, when it comes to prioritising things, you’ll always have a good excuse to skip a workout. You’ll remain perpetually busy working, catching up on your reading or back-log of work, running errands, surfing the net, helping your child with homework, cooking, shopping, meeting up with a friend, or even just catching up on sleep. The answer to your list of obstacles is always the same. You have to make the time. Manage your time better! Exercise during your lunch hour, while watching television, use the time when your kid is at play school, or stop off at your fitness class on your way home from work. Where there’s a will, there’s always a way. The benefits of exercise are really endless, and need not be dinned into us. These include fat loss, muscle toning, a dramatic improvement in health and physical appearance, increased self-confidence, increased bone density, improved cardiovascular fitness, and much more. Improving one’s social life, personal life, sex life and career, a fit body can transform your life completely for the better. Do we really need more reasons to decide to make exercise a part of our regular lives? Here are some simple and effective exercises you can do even while just sitting at your desk in the office.
For the upper body (arms, chest and back) 1 While sitting at your desk, get your palms to meet at chest level. With your elbows bent and close by your side, squeeze your palms together while exhaling, and release this slightly while inhaling. (See picture on right) 2 Holding your hands at waist level, pull apart while exhaling, and release this slightly while inhaling. For the legs
2 In the above position, move the leg three to four inches from side to side, instead of up and down. This involves the inner and outer thigh muscles. Both the above exercises can be made more challenging as you find the need to advance by straightening the working leg out and holding it as parallel to the floor as possible while doing the above - described exercises. (See picture on right). For the abs
This works the main abdominal muscle, the rectus abdominus, which is also nicknamed the "six pack", (the trained abs resemble a six pack of beer). To include the below belly abdominal group, get into the previously described position, and then get your right ankle up upon your left knee. Hold this position for a slow count of 10. You can switch legs at a later stage. This targets both the main abdominal muscle (rectus abdominus) and the transverse abdominus which sits in the pelvic cavity. Note: The above abdominal exercises are not appropriate for those with a high BP problem. Do these three to four times a week, and you’ll see results in about three weeks. You’ll realise soon enough that you don’t have to spend hours sweating it out in the gym, jogging in the park or participating in fitness classes. You can have it all without even leaving your office, and by spending as little six to eight minutes each day!
— The writer is a Mumbai-based fitness and wellness expert and a certified fitness professional by American Council on Exercise and International Dance Exercise Association. She has a website www.bodyart.in
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Quick
desk fixes
1 While sitting at
your desk, lift one foot up about six inches off from the floor. In
this position, pulse up and down a quarter to half an inch. Breathe
normally and don’t let the upper body rock while doing this. Keep it
steady.
While sitting on the
edge of your chair, keep both legs bent and apart from one another.
Lean back all the way, just short of touching the chair. Make sure the
spine is rounded over and your chin is lowered close to the chest at
all times. Remain frozen in this reclined position for a slow count of
10, before sitting upright to relax for a few moments. Make sure you
don’t hold your breath at any time during this exercise. Breathe
normally right through. Leaving the arms extended out by your side and
parallel to the floor is the easiest option. As you get stronger and
can take on more, bring the fists to your forehead, elbows bent and
close together in front of you. To make the exercise even tougher,
extend both arms straight up overhead.
Begin by doing
eight-to- 10 counts of all the above exercises, in sets of two
or three each. As you get stronger, you can slowly increase the
counts or reps, and even the sets later. It’s always important
to overload gradually, once the body has adapted and is
relatively comfortable with the given activity. Once your body
gets used to a particular exercise, and it begins to get easier,
it is important to load up in order to continue seeing results.
Otherwise, you’ll stop seeing regular results. Your body just
gets immune to your workout! But give yourself time to adapt to
the new activity before you decide to take on a more challenging
level. One can overload by exercising harder, longer, more
often, or by changing the type of exercise to something more
challenging.