Fit, energized, and de-stressed during your lunch break! Without leaving the Office (Bonus)

Cardio Exercises

1. Squats

Stand in front of your desk with your hands on the desk.
Slowly bend your knees, but not further than your thighs being parallel to the floor. Keep your feet flat on the floor. Do 10-20 repetitions at your own speed, depending on your physical condition. Wait for 30 seconds to a minute and repeat. This time you may want to lift your heels when you squat down, coming up high onto the balls of your feet. Do three sets altogether, if you can. As you get better, try letting go of holding on to the desk and do it free-standing. Experiment with how close or far apart your knees are.

2. Dips

Take your chair and move it either with the back against the wall, or against your desk. Just make sure it is steady and cannot move or tip over.

Stand in front of your chair with your back facing the open seat. Now sit down and place your hands at the edge of the seat. Move your body forward until your bottom is almost off the seat. Place your hands firmly to make sure they can support your weight. Scoop forward until you are off the seat. Now, slowly lower your body, keeping your hands firmly in place on the seat of your chair. Dip down as low as feels somewhat comfortable (it should not be too comfortable) and come up again, without sitting back on the seat.
Do between 10-20 dips. But if you can only do three to five, that is fine. You will build up strength as you continue your practice.
Don’t drop to the floor, but bring yourself up onto your seat with your last move. If you have not done this before, expect some muscle soreness. Nicely defined muscles and strong arms are the long-term reward.

3. Mountain climbing

This exercise is like # 3 in the Total Body Stretch exercise, but much more vigorously performed.

Stand in front of your desk again, place your hands close to the edge and step back about three feet. Your whole body should be in a 45- degree plank position.

Leave room between the desk and your head, because you will swing your leg out behind you and then bring your knee close to your forehead. (Of course, make sure you don’t hit your face!)
Do this exercise by focusing on your core, your abdomen; really harden it by squeezing your muscles and pulling your navel in and back when you bring your knee close to your head. This squeezing and stretching of your abdominal floor (muscles) will strengthen your mid-rift and keep your spine flexible and supple. It generates energy throughout your body systems.

Always end any vigorous exercise session with cooling down, bringing your breath back to normal.

Different breathing exercises are of great benefit for stress relief, increasing energy, or calming of over-excited nerves.

As an additional bonus, I will give a short introduction to my “Hand Meditation” for immediate stress relief, if you request it by email.