How about cardio? You can buy under-the-desk bikes, treadmills and elliptical trainers, but the best way to raise your heart rate at work is still to press “reply” instead of “forward” when you’re making a sarky comment about your boss’s latest motivational email.īeats CrossFit any day. But if you’re deskbound, try leg raises and ankle circles. Are there ways of secretly exercising while you work? Personally, I favour the traditional “walking around while carrying some papers” approach: get your steps in and no one bothers you. Although it would also feel weird doing yoga while everyone else was beavering away. Sounds like you both need the “ Yoga for Workaholics 2” video, which, sweetly, has two colleagues doing stretches and heel raises together.Ībsolutely not. Rachel already does that when she’s writing emails – it drives me mad. One of the breathing exercises does involve making a “steady humming sound”, though. Mostly it’s sitting or standing stretches, twists and breathing exercises, not one-legged planks. The Y-break protocol suggests four six-minute routines and they’re pretty sensible and low-key. As if it wasn’t bad enough them parading around in sweaty Lycra and talking about CrossFit, now we’re endorsing crow poses on the photocopier? This isn’t for yoga show-offs. This just sounds like another way for competitive office exercisers to show off. Shhh … close your eyes, take a deep breath and exhale. What would de-stress, refresh and re focus me is not being at work. Your what? I’m taking inspiration from India’s civil service, which is encouraging staff to take a “ Y-break”, incorporating desk yoga into their day to “de-stress, refresh and refocus”. Vape down the alleyway? Trip to the vending machine? Therapeutic gossip about Alan’s shirt? No, I’m going to take my Y-break. You’ve been hunched over that screen for hours.

Office yoga video