(At Least for 10 Minutes a Day!)

More and more health venues are reporting on the benefits of walking as a way to burn calories during a long and often sedentary work day.

  A recent Fitness Magazine article online touted walking as a top calorie burner for today’s office workers, with estimates of over 100 calories burned in a typical 10-15 minute walk (including walking up/down stairs).  And even some state health department web sites are encouraging workers to use a different parking strategy (forget hunting for that closest space!) to get some walking into the beginning and end of the day.

So what’s involved in putting a walk into your office day?  Well, in principle, there are really three components, and at their most basic level, you could identify them as follows:

1. get your work place to support walking
2. get walking into your routine
3. keep walking in your routine

But it’s not always that simple.  Entirely too many jobs, from serving tables or providing clerical assistance in nearly any facility, are not engineered by individuals who have the health of workers in mind.  Over and over again, entry-level or even mid-level workers in many industries tell the same sad story: of how their federally mandated ten-minute breaks are “their down time”, or how their shop is just “too busy” to accommodate this legal standard.  Well, that’s just not going to cut it.  Managers in charge of any of these positions should be told, and told well, that there’s no excuse for not allowing this basic right for workers, especially after it’s been written into the common business norms of our society!

So part of getting your walk in is being your own advocate and not taking “no” for an answer!

After you have made all levels of staff attentive to the need for physical activity to boost both health and production (regardless of what clueless middle managers may say, it’s been proven that physical activity will make workers MORE productive, not less), it’s time to combat another natural obstacle: habits.  It can be difficult to start remembering to take that walk mid-morning, when you mornings frequently go as fast as the blink of an eye.  But scheduling your walk (through MS Outlook if necessary) will help you remain steadfast to your goals.

Office workers wanting to get walking will also have to sometimes deal with the elements.  Instead of staying indoors through that light March drizzle, bring an umbrella and walk anyway!   Refuse to let your schedule be compromised by all of the “chaos factors” (including both weather and things like unscheduled tours, visitors, meetings, sales calls, lectures or teleconferences) and maintain a regimented walk schedule that will see you through to better health!

And when that structure is in place, keep it there.  Try being deliberate about getting out when the weather turns cold, and if you need to curtail your walk schedule to escape the ravages of a harsh northern winter, set a date early on to recommence your walk routine.  Get others to join you: recruit those smokers by the dumpster (and get them to drop the smokes if possible) and get everyone out and about!  It will keep you all healthier (and in better moods) and even give your shop more visibility in the community!