Don’t take your break at your desk – boost your afternoon with energy-building exercise.
Leisurely breaks sipping G&Ts and swapping office gossip with our colleagues are long gone. Now we’re more likely to find ourselves dropping crumbs into our keyboards as we work through the hour once known as lunch.
Sixty per cent of us eat lunch at our desk every day, with many admitting we’d feel guilty if we left the office for an hour. By not taking lunch, we are working the equivalent of 16 extra days a year.
But if we’re savvy, not only will we get an hour out of the office but we can boost our productivity and energy levels for the afternoon.
‘The biggest thing people need to do halfway through the day is re-energise,’ says Personal Touch Fitness founder Chris Andrews. ‘We’re at a computer all day staring at four walls so we need to make sure we get out and recharge our batteries.’
The best way to do this is with exercise. Personal Touch Fitness organises classes for offices across Britain. ‘We arrange everything from a teacher, to music and equipment, to coming to your meeting room or a nearby park for staff to participate,’ she says. ‘We offer everything from boxercise to yoga to boost you physically and mentally.’
Exercising during the day, especially at lunchtime, gives us a greater potential to burn fat, according to Dylan Jones, performance coach at TwentyTwo Training.
‘Your session will trigger the release of fatty acids to use for fuel, burning body fat instead of the carbohydrates you would have eaten for lunch,’ he says.
‘Your post workout lunch is also more likely to be efficiently processed by the body by transporting nutrients directly to the muscles rather than the waistline. Due to this process, the blood sugar levels will not peak suddenly, minimising the drop-off of the afternoon slump.’
But for something to really invigorate the afternoon, Doug Tannahill, personal trainer at The Third Space , advises a short, sharp circuit with explosive exercises.Jones recommends doing chakra-based exercises during our lunch break. ‘These will help energise the body by working on zones that are related to various functions of health. Things such as lunges and resistance band rows that can be done in the comfort of your office.’
‘This excites the central nervous system, keeping you more awake and alert for the rest of the day,’ he says. ‘The exercises you use in the circuit are most effective if they involve the whole body.
‘I’d recommend jumping squats, medicine ball slams and explosive press-ups (where your hands leave the floor when you come up). Aim for five to seven sets of five reps with no rest between exercises and 90 seconds rest between sets. When you feel your speed/power drop in a round, don’t do another one.’
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