With the new home office era, which certainly has many advantages to offer, many people are facing certain challenges: constant snacking and poor eating habits, less structure in everyday life due to more flexible working hours and the lack of a commute, and above all, far too little exercise lead to weight gain, energy slumps, poor sleep, dissatisfaction, back, neck, and knee pain, as well as susceptibility to minor illnesses.
Now it's time to break out of the home office slump. With the right office exercises, a more consciously structured daily routine, and the right eating habits, things will start looking up again. In this text, Supz shows you how!
Why office exercises also work at home – challenges and opportunities in the home office
Especially since the Corona era, many people have moved their work to the home office. Even after the lockdown period, many companies have at least developed a hybrid model of working from home and working in the office. Today's article comes a bit more from my personal perspective, as I have devoted myself heavily to the topic of working from home over the past year.
As Head Coach at the MTM Personal Training Studio in Berlin, I have seen what challenges my clients face. For many, it is not enough for them to receive nutritional recommendations and well-guided, structured training from me. Due to the home office routine, the hormonal system has become particularly disrupted, and people have fallen into a blood sugar rollercoaster due to a lack of exercise and too many sugary snacks, which triggers more and more cravings, poor sleep, and general malaise. Since daily structure and often also social contacts are missing, I address all these topics with people, including their mental well-being.
Above all, however, the commutes are missing, which were partly done on foot or by bike, as well as the walk to a shared lunch. Some people only manage 500-1000 steps a day on home office days, which is definitely far from the goal of the recommended 10,000 steps. If this exercise is missing, the hormonal system cannot wind down in the evening, and you do not fall asleep or sleep through the night. In addition, the body burns significantly fewer calories and loses muscle mass in the process, which means you actually need to eat even less.
However, it is significantly more sustainable to build muscle or at least maintain it with office exercises and a proper office workout at home. This achieves hormonal balance, you burn more calories, but do not eat out of cravings and sleep better. All this leads to a generally better well-being, good energy levels at your desk, a fit, beautiful body, and balance.
The FIT@HOME Book
In the past year, I had the opportunity to develop my book FIT@HOME together with the GU Publishing House, in which I share all my tips and suggestions and many recipes that support everyday life in the home office.
It contains many office exercise routines, including back exercises for the office at home, a home office workout, as well as stretching and lengthening exercises – some of which can be performed directly in the office chair. With FIT@HOME, you can finally work successfully and healthily in the home office and also snack fitly with over 70 simple, quick recipes:
Image: Jochen Arndt, image rights: GU Verlag München
By the way, you can find the book here!
Office exercises today – your office workout for healthy working in the home office
As always, the most effective workout method is structured strength training in a gym. Guided or at least introduced by a good and experienced coach. But if that is difficult for you or you can simply fit home workouts better into your daily routine, you can also stay fit with office exercises at home. Home office sports can be done with equipment consisting of dumbbells, barbells, bands, a pull-up bar, and kettlebells. However, if you have little space and prefer to do office exercises at home without additional weights or tools, you can also do bodyweight workouts. Which advantages and disadvantages these two forms have and what needs to be considered in this regard is described in even greater detail in the Home Training or Fitness Studio? article.
One way to do your office exercises at home is with HIIT training. An example of such a training that can be done great as an office workout at home can be found in the article about HIIT .
It is important to always work towards performing exercises through their full range of motion. For example, a squat should always go as deep as possible if possible and not just to 90 degrees. This actively stretches the muscles. This is how properly performed office exercises at home can be a form of pain prevention. In addition, such exercises are physiologically more global and have a greater effect on body fat reduction and muscle building. Especially if you are not using additional weights that would increase mechanical tension and thus enhance the training effect.
Seated exercise routines for the back and abdomen
Seated exercise routines are more suitable for active movement breaks and stretching in between. These are great for loosening up stiff muscles and improving blood flow to the tissue. Especially for the intervertebral discs, it is important that they can refill with fluid, as they lose it throughout the day.
Image: Jochen Arndt, image rights: GU Verlag München
Office exercises at your desk at home can be very simple; the following video shows 3 simple stretches that can always be done in between in the home office directly in the office chair. They release the erector spinae muscle and the neck. The exercises at the desk can be easily linked to routines, more on that in the next section:
Integrating exercises at the workplace very easily into the working day
To sustainably integrate office exercises into the home office, these new routines should ideally be linked to existing ones. Anyone who processes their emails first thing in the morning could, for example, send an email to themselves the day before with the message "Reminder: Office Exercise Desk Stretches" and open this email as the last message, so that after processing the previous one, you directly perform the movements before the next tasks in your home office routine.
It is best to schedule 30 to 50 minutes of office sports as a regular appointment in your calendar. Whether early in the morning, during your lunch break, or after work. It is important that you really think about it beforehand exactly when you will perform the office exercise Home Workout . Somewhere on Monday and Thursday is not enough; something like that will always get overlooked.
Fit in the office – fit in the head – the connection
Yoga exercises for the office at home, office exercises in the form of sports in the home office, stretching exercises for the office, but also walks, shopping by bike, or going running again, clear your head. Our body's own signals, the hormones and neurotransmitters are responsible for our energy level and whether we can work focused and motivated. A balance of hormones and neurotransmitters depends largely on nutrition and exercise. If we eat carbohydrates and sugar early on and hardly move throughout the day, signals for relaxation, well-being, and sleep mode are primarily activated. We actually want these more in the evening or during breaks, not all day long. However, if they act throughout the day, they are (simplified) exhausted by the evening. Due to the lack of activating hormones that we need during exercise, active work, and focus, they have come up short and then act crazy in the evening and at night. This then leads to sleep problems. Neither side is good or bad; it is much more about a balanced interplay of the two.
Image: Jochen Arndt, image rights: GU Verlag München
If we eat breakfast protein, good fats, and fiber, eat low in sugar, move a lot during the day, and reduce internal stress, then we can wind down better in the evening. The power signals are active during the day and can then withdraw in the evening when the relaxation hormones fulfill their duties. A few good carbohydrates can support this mode in the evening and are primarily useful when you have trained intensively. Stretching exercises in the office at home after work can also have a relaxing effect and let the day wind down. Office exercises in the form of sports in the office can activate and bring the hormonal system into balance.
How to stay fit in the home office and monitor yourself
Working healthily in the home office? Yes, it is possible:
Nutrition in the home office is the be-all and end-all. As written above, you should start the day with the right breakfast. Scrambled eggs, coconut yogurt with berries and vegan protein powder and nuts, or some low-carb bread with roast beef are just a few simple examples. Regular meals are essential to avoid unconscious snacking on sweets. This prevents cravings and stabilizes blood sugar.
In addition to the three main meals, two healthy snacks should be available, for example olives, nuts, berries, sugar-free homemade protein balls, or nut butter with vegetable sticks. In my book FIT@HOME, you will find numerous delicious and simple recipes for the perfect breakfast, the right snacks and treats, as well as lunch and dinner. Basically, the less muscle mass and the more body fat you have, and the less you move, the fewer carbohydrates you should consume. Those who have more muscle and move a lot can reach for carbs more often.
These nutritional measures alone will stabilize blood sugar more. However, exercise in the form of office exercises in the home office, walks, stretching, and lengthening exercises directly at your desk are also an important factor for stable blood sugar and thus a balanced hormonal system that lets you work focused and healthily.
Important exercises for the office – lengthening exercises & stretching exercises
Anyone who also wants to integrate yoga and stretching exercises into office exercises at home can do this on a yoga mat. Such stretching exercise sessions could last from 5 to 60 minutes. One option would be to first roll out the entire body with a fascia roller.
This stimulates blood flow and metabolism, prevents pain, and can even release trigger points. After this rolling out, you also feel significantly more supple for any office exercise routines, but also simple stretches and yoga. In the following two videos, you can see some simple mobility exercises for the home office:
Breaking out of the home office slump is doable! With the right office exercises, a consciously more structured daily routine, and the right eating habits supported by the right supplements things will start looking up again.