To ask, if you are office based/WFH, how much exercise you do in a week?

[Marnie56]

I’m really missing the ‘unconscious’ steps/activity of going to the office/commuting and rushing around to meetings - I say unconscious because they would easily tack up to 10k+ steps without me even realising.

Now I’ve been WFH for 6 months (and for the foreseeable) I’m really struggling with forcing myself to move more even though you’d think I’d have all this extra time (not happened though - long hours corporate job!)

In reality I am aiming to go to spin classes 3/4 times a week (my fave exercise and one I can actually stick to!) but doesn’t always happen - and going for at least a 30 minute brisk walk a day (but again, sometimes just not possible!) I also want to lose nearly a stone so I really have to do this!

Is this actually a good amount of exercise/movement or am I still being quite sedentary? Hating my body post lockdown

I'm actively ensuring I move in order to combat WFH.

I aim for 3x 5km runs each week, 3 x strength sessions. On non run days I go for a walk first thing in the morning. I average 10-12k steps a day and weekends around 20k.

I bought a peleton with the money I saved through wfh so I use it every day - I do 45 mins one day and 30 mins with 10 mins arm toning the next. Weekends off. love it!

Nowhere near as much as I used to do when commuting! I used to get in a few miles a day, walking the kids to school, walking to tube station, walking from tube station, and back again in the evenings. Now the kids are back in school, I'm going to try and recreate my walk after dropping them off. My hours are the same, so I should have time to fit in a decent walk before heading home. Maybe I'll try running it one day, but I hate running.

I’m annoyed at myself as I got into a real rut for the last few months where I had days when I hardly moved at all due to the number of meetings and then being knackered - I’ve now got to work extra hard to get the weight off!

Not nearly enough, I look like Jabba the Hutt. Back at work now so very much hoping I can get back to normal moving wise.

@cheerfulcoconut

Nowhere near as much as I used to do when commuting! I used to get in a few miles a day, walking the kids to school, walking to tube station, walking from tube station, and back again in the evenings. Now the kids are back in school, I'm going to try and recreate my walk after dropping them off. My hours are the same, so I should have time to fit in a decent walk before heading home. Maybe I'll try running it one day, but I hate running.

This is it - I actually hate most actual exercise like running and can’t keep it up, I need the unconscious steps!

Like you though I’m going to start trying to recreate my commute and do a walk at least before work if not afterwards - better than nothing!!

I've been really boring and make myself go for a 20 min walk before work, gardening or walk during my lunch break and run / cycle / walk to supermarket/ HIIT workout after work. It a driven me nuts it's so repetitive but I've tried to drag myself through this.
And I've always done at least 10,000 steps.

I walk the dog for an hour every day. I was biking for an hour every lunch time but can see that tailing off in the colder weather. I used to cycle commute so will miss that.

I'm going to the gym every day and doing either pump or spin plus a yoga class. Also playing tennis a couple of times a week.

I think doing spin a few times a week is good and more than a lot of people do.

I have downloaded some apps for cardio and strength training. Trying to do them mon-fri and it takes 30-45 mins each day depending on how many I do.

Still doesn't make up for all the incidental exercise I used to get but it's better than nothing which is what I did for several months.

I'm a university tutor who has been 'teaching' online for the past several months. Just a while ago we were discussing this. In a normal day, I'd walk to and from work and go back for lunch or for some other reason at least once - I live 5 minutes away from work so it doesn't sound a lot, but add in moving from the staffroom to my various classrooms several times a day, that's up to 40 minutes walking right there. Then there are the constant mini trips to the photocopier, to check a student's work, to chat to a colleague on the other side of the staffroom etc, and it all really adds up. I live in a smallish apartment so unless I actively force myself to move, I could get away with barely moving at all. It's not good.

I've been so sedentary as have the DC from 6am-7pm, then it's bedtime and after than I'm too exhausted. Whereas before I'd walk or cycle to work and/or do the school run. I do go out with DC but they walk sooo sloooowly. I hurt my knee so can't run or do hiit workouts at the moment with any impact.

I started c25k with my dc (teens and pree teens)

plus I walk or cycle for 20 min during my lunchbreak.
but I have to make a concious effort for that.

Walk every day for at least 30 minutes. I know all the local parks, the common, where the cafes are, have seen ducklings grow, probably seen all the dogs responsibly looked after in the area too. And several cats!

I'm also going to start walking to the village shop on the other side of the village for stuff rather than the shop next door. It's only an 8 - 10 min walk but that's a bit under 20 mins a day. So an extra 2 hrs plus a week. Might make up for the lack of bimbling around the office.

You guys are great - I need to get my act together and make sure I don’t make any excuses!

I have piled on the quarantonnes!

I found it really frustrating as DH starts work about 6:30, so I'm in charge of getting the children up and fed or doing homework until my own work start time of 9. No time to go out for a walk as DD is up before 7 and still the right age to be constantly interrupting him if I'm not here. After work hours I need to feed everybody and do DD's bedtime, usually while checking my phone for work emails (and often going back to it after tea). By 9pm I'm too tired to go anywhere! I went from 10k-12k steps a day to 3k-4k.

I'm exactly the same as you about the spinning. It's the only thing I tend to stick at. I've put the children in breakfast club now so I can use my former commuting hour to go and do an 8:15 spin class. Twice a week in the week and once on Sunday mornings (I am so unfit I really was suffering today and it's taken me all day to recover from it!)

They start on breakfast club on Tuesday and I can't wait to get back to my old self!

Probably more in terms of high energy exercise, I used to walk to and from the station and up and down escalators so as soon as lockdown started doing HIIT sessions in the garden whilst kids were eating or playing. Also walking and cycling where possible.
I’m joining a new gym for autumn/winter as outside exercise may not be so appealing/easy. I have to keep it up for my mental as well as physical health.

Now the dcs are back I aim to get more exercise by getting out at lunchtime for 20 minutes. Felt rather guilty during lockdown and the school holidays if I shut myself away to wfh. I’ve had a bad back since July and I’m convinced it’s lack of exercise (minimal incidental walking and gym closed) combined with sitting, hours on end, day after day at my desk. I’m prioritising myself now - that arrangement was unsustainable. Good luck!

Do an hour on my turbo bike first thing and weights. Then even if I don’t do any other exercise I know that’s done. Do it first thing then shower for day. Routine now watch a box set while I do it

With dc at home it's been impossible to do anything other than work, childcare, feed people, sleep. Now they're back I am hoping to go running twice a week, 5km at the moment, need to steadily increase to get back to 10km.

I've also become worryingly sedentary and I think I need to force myself to actually take a lunch break and go for a walk - I never feel like I have time but I guess I need to prioritise it. I'm pregnant so taking up a new regime of 'proper' exercise isn't recommended (I was a semi regular runner but stopped during the bit of lockdown where we were both working around a toddler and I was totally exhausted) but keeping active is really important. I've gone from doing 8-10,000 steps on a working day to less than 4,000 most days (most of which are taking DS to nursery). I do move more on my non-working day and the weekend because then I have a toddler to chase around and we always go for a walk, but four days literally just sat still really isn't great - I work at a university and used to rack up a lot of steps not just through my commute but by walking across campus for meetings. I was pretty good about staying active in my last pregnancy - I walked four miles the day before DS was born - and although I know I was lucky to be able to do that, I do think that it helped with labour/recovery so I'm going to try to make more of an effort not to let myself continue to lose fitness as I have been.

About an hour a day, but my second job is a sport so I have to maintain a certain level of fitness to perform that role.

I've found I've had to force myself into a new routine or the exercise never happens. So I'm making myself go for a walk when I finish walk however little I feel like it (ironically I used to walk to work, so I would always go for a walk after finishing work and it never seemed a chore then!) because I know it does help my mood.
Then I'd doing a fitness video in the evening (replacing what would have been going to the gym).

I was an avid spinner and have bought a peloton. It’s life changing - I’m absolutely evangelical about it, so much more than just a spin bike. I wish I’d bought it years ago

I totally understand what you mean OP. I need to push myself to get moving.