Movement is a crucial component of our health. Unfortunately, many current jobs require us to sit for many hours at a time, which increases the amount of time we spend sedentary each day. We all know that sitting for long periods of time day after day isn’t good for our health, but it’s our responsibility to do something about it. 

There are many different ways we can move our bodies during the day with exercise being just one piece of the puzzle. 

Formal exercise is a great addition to get more movement in during our day, but a 30 minute workout isn’t going to reverse all of the damage that sitting for 6-8 hours each day can cause on our bodies. Even someone who exercises regularly can be considered sedentary if the majority of the time they spend outside of their workout has little to no movement involved. 

Excessive sitting can be life-threatening as it can increase your chances of many diseases such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, back and neck problems, and more. Adding movement into your work day, outside of exercise, can significantly decrease these risks and will improve your overall quality of life.

If you currently sit for most of your work day, it’s going to be difficult to change this habit. Even if your job requires you to sit at a computer, the act of sitting while doing your work and other activities in your work day has become a habit. 

Habits are formed when we perform the same actions over, and over and it takes time to change them. Think of your habits like trails in the woods. Your current habit is the nicely groomed trail you walk often and take care of. You spend a lot of time on this trail and you effortlessly know the way. Building a new habit is like building a new trail through the woods. It takes a lot of time and effort to build the new one, and for a while, it’s difficult to find again.

Adding in more movement during our work day is a great way to combat a sedentary lifestyle. Creating a new habit of adding movement into the work day is going to require conscious change with planned effort. It’s easy to continue doing what we’ve always done because that habit trail is nicely groomed. 

It’s challenging to make changes to our habits because we have to think through each step for many days in a row. Having a plan of how you’re going to move more during the work day will help you build this new habit, especially when it becomes even more challenging to do so. 

Moving more during your work day doesn’t have to look a certain way. Each job is different and so the opportunities for movement will look different as well. Some of my favorite options include creating a step goal for the day, doing as much work standing as possible, doing simple exercises at your desk like calf raises, or taking stretch breaks. 

There is no right or wrong way to add more movement to your day, so pick something that feels interesting to you, set yourself up with a form of reminders and accountability, and get started as soon as possible. 

You may be the only person at your company prioritizing adding more movement into your day for a while. This is normal. Before you know it, other people will see how much more energy you have and they’ll want to join in too.