In February, we asked ES to share “What Moves You”. Congratulations to Doreen Lange, Ashley Stapleton and Sanchari Barua on the Okanagan campus and Ines Belic, Liyan Derman and Erica Shmizu on the Vancouver campus. They won prizes for sharing what moves them.

Here are some of the ways our colleagues build movement into their work day, and the benefits they experience by doing so. We hope some of these ideas help you move more, whether working at home or on campus.

Ideas:

  • Set a reminder in calendar to MOVE (exercise/workout or stretch) for 20-30 mins every day
  • Bike commute to the office. I arrive at work/home stress free, instead of frustrated by the drive/bus commute.
  • Katy Bowman (www.nutritiousmovement.com) has inspired my whole family to take movement more seriously! We built an obstacle course in the backyard for our kids to swing, jump, balance. I have a standing desk at my home office, and I only wear barefoot shoes, or barefoot! I park 10 mins away from work or when I drop my kids off at school, so we always get a little walk in throughout the day. Whenever possible, I will walk instead of drive. We also have lots of family dance parties. Exercise doesn’t have to look a certain way, it’s so amazing to have little sips of movement throughout your day!
  • At home, I stretch. I do jumping jacks or high knees when I am feeling low energy. At the office, I will go up and down the stairs a few times. I feel funny stretching at work but i do my best to move my neck around etc.
  • I take a 45 minute walk at 4pm each day that I work from home.
  • Starting to do 20 minute yoga breaks at lunch time.
  • I joined walk for joy with 4 friends and now we connect in different ways to keep up our steps each day!
  • Dance breaks! At home I take a break and listen to a couple of songs that really make me want to move and I get up and have a solo dance party. This is especially helpful when I don’t feel like I have enough time to go out for a walk. I think we should bring dance breaks into the office!
  • Lunchtime runs!
  • Daily 30-40 min exercise videos (youtube)
  • I follow my Fitbit watch hourly movement prompts and takes a round in my apartment corridor for 5min! If on a shift I would take the 30 secs in between calls to stand up and stretch (sometimes lunges too!)
  • During the pandemic, I built a lot of home based workouts into my activities. This meant getting some more equipment, which I use to change positions and continue stretching and pushing my flexibility as I work.

Benefits:

  • Stress release and less achy from sitting all day!
  • Getting up for a walk around campus while at work to enjoy a break and get some steps in. Refreshes me and gives me an opportunity to unwind a little.
  • If I do not move I go crazy.
  • It helps me decompress from the day and stay physically strong.
  • It gives me a mental break and helps me reset for the rest of the day. I find that I am less stressed at the end of the day if I take a yoga break at lunch. I tend to hold stress in my back, neck, and shoulders and I can really feel the difference!
  • Gets me out of the house, gets me connecting with friends again, helps my back with sitting all day
  • Dancing energizes me, lifts my mood, and uses most of the muscles in the body… core, arms, legs. It also motivates me to work standing for a while so I don’t feel like sitting all day!
  • I feel more balanced and focused, and much less stressed.
  • lifts my whole day up! more energy, more positivity
  • It helps me take care of my physical and mental wellness. Physically it allows me to “switch the shift” for muscles that works hard when sitting. Mentally it enables me to take a break even sometimes “reset” with better mental preparedness, especially when it’s busy time!
  • I think this has improved my posture quite a lot. My knee feels better than it has in years through a combination of passive stretching at work and strengthening once my workday is done.