Walking during the working day - 3 ways to do it

A brisk walk is a good form of exercise and is something most colleagues can participate in regardless of physical fitness. You rarely get injuries or overloads from a walk and it requires no materials or the like. It is an optimal way to get some movement into the working day, where everyone can join in!
But how can you fit walking into your working day? There are several good options and we will mention some of them here, which hopefully can be used as inspiration and adapted to your workplace.

Walking break:

Spend the first half of your lunch break getting something to eat and end your break with a walk. It's a nice break from the workplace and it's energizing to get some fresh air. Take some of your colleagues out for a walk. This way you can create some good social relationships with your colleagues. If you make it a regular appointment, you can keep each other up on it and benefit from the energy you get from the walk every day.

Walk & talk:

The vast majority of meetings are held around a table in a meeting room. But why not take the meeting outside? If it's a large group, it's difficult to walk while everyone hears what's being said. That's why it's a good idea to have a standing meeting outdoors. If you need to talk in smaller groups during the meeting, you can go for a short walk during the meeting. If there are only two people at the meeting, you can take a longer walk. Take a piece of paper and a pen with you so that you can write notes along the way if you need to. This way, you'll get some fresh air and come back with more energy than if you had been sitting on either side of a table for that time.

Count steps:

Count steps with a pedometer, which you can get as a watch or as an app for your mobile phone, to get more steps in your legs during the working day. For example, you can make an agreement with your colleagues on how many steps you should have reached before the end of the working day. You can also make it a competition to see who can reach the agreed number of steps first or who can walk the most steps during the week. Another option is to decide on a certain number of steps you will walk during your lunch break or at a walk & talk meeting.

Walking is not that physically demanding and there are many ways you can fit a walk into your working day. So talk to your colleagues and see if they'd be up for the idea of walking a bit more together during the working week.

By Josefine Huusom