Following on with our working from home theme, did you know that exercise not only has a huge impact on your mental and physical health, but it can also help to prevent injury and improve and increase your work productivity too? So how can you exercise at home?
Firstly, make sure you break up prolonged periods of sitting with short bursts of activity. This can be small amounts of light walking, moving around the house, cleaning, gardening or going up and down the stairs every 30 minutes.
Increasing your daily activity by doing some more structured exercise, such as a brisk walk outside, Pilates, or weight training, can reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression. If you struggle to exercise by yourself, and local Covid-19 restrictions do not permit face-to-face classes, your local gym or Physiotherapy clinic may be running structured live online classes. Other ideas on how to get started with a new activity this year can be viewed here: www.csp.org.uk/public-patient/keeping-
active-healthy/love-activity-hate-exercise-campaign/getting-started
Finally, simple stretches, designed by expert Physiotherapists, are available for free on the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy website. These can help ease the aches and pains associated with sitting for long periods at home: www.csp.org.uk/public-patient/keeping-active-healthy/staying-healthy-work/desk-based-exercises
*Please ensure you consult your GP before starting any new form of exercise*
Joanne Pritchard BSc (Hons), MSc, MCSP, HCPC registered Principal Physiotherapist and Director Physio Pilates Retford.
www.physiopilatesretford.co.uk
Reference: www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causdis/stress.pdf (accessed on 21/12/2020).
Did you know?
Depression and anxiety are the most common mental health conditions in our society and over the course of one year, approximately 1 in 4 of us will experience one, or both, of these conditions. In 2019-2020, 17.9 million working days were lost due to stress, anxiety and depression, and with events in 2020, these figures are likely to rise.
Exercise or activity releases endorphins (your happy hormones) into your blood stream. This feel-good factor helps to prevent the escalation of stress and help manage mild depression and anxiety. Research also suggests that exercise increases both the quantity and quality of your work with reduced sickness absence. Start moving and exercising now to reduce the risks of stress affecting you and your work.
