How and why to keep fit, if you are an IT person at a distance
Large IT companies are promoting sports among their employees: they set up bicycle parking, equip halls inside the office and even collect group classes during working hours. On the remote, the organization of sports activities by the employer is not available. But if a new remote worker starts to think about the arrangement of the workplace almost before switching to this format, sport in the minds of many remains an optional option - somewhere at the level of the usual “office package” from coffee machines, cookies and English classes. And this is a key mistake.
Under the cut - about how our employees maintain their physical shape and why it is generally needed.
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On the personnel portals, HRs of “office” companies constantly talk about the positive effects of group physical exertion on the team. This is the prestige of the company, and team building, and a component of the social package to attract personnel in one bottle. But sports activities in the office pursue not only corporate goals. For knowledge workers, regular exercise helps maintain performance over long periods of time and is less likely to hurt.
Doctors complain that with the development of the transport system, communications, and in general, with the increase in the standard of living, we move less and eat more, so gradually, mankind on average is gaining excess weight. But when planning work from home, no one even thinks about how much movement a person actually has who regularly gets to work at least an hour one way. Judge for yourself: you have to pack up, walk to a public transport stop, drive through (most often standing, straining different muscles periodically, along our roads, so as not to fall on other passengers). Motorists are spared from this training, but they should, for example, dig up a car in the winter season. Inside the office, too, it will not work all day to not get up from the chair. Pour coffee - already going to the kitchen or to the coffee maker. Yes, and the heels of flights of flights in a day you somehow overcome - especially if you smoke, and there are no premises for this in the business center.
Homes of all this is not. On the one hand, this, of course, is a big plus - there is no inappropriate expenditure of time on the road and meaningless office procedures. On the other hand, many are faced with the problem of physical inactivity. With full remote work (full time) it is at least 8 hours a day at the computer in a certain position. Pose is a separate topic, today we will not touch it. But even if it is perfect, the amount of movement is minimized. For lunch you can not go anywhere - the kitchen is close by, and even products today in large cities can be ordered with delivery, i.e. the chances of not leaving the apartment for several days are quite real.
Such a drastic reduction in physical activity, of course, saves time. But it is not for long. Today it can be used for interesting tasks, but if nothing is done, tomorrow this “reserve” will have to be spent on visits to doctors.
The saddest thing is that if you do not catch these problems at an early stage, the body will become worse and worse. And so, by the age of 30 it is already possible to get a whole bunch of unpleasant diseases (we recommend contacting doctors for detailed diagnoses).
There are no ardent athletes among us. We are all ordinary people, with or without families, with our hobbies and laziness, who, if possible, try to weave sport into everyday life without making it an end in itself.
It is easier for those who live in their own home - for them, the maintenance of the dwelling itself and the adjacent territory already results in certain “exercises”. As our leading expert in automated testing, Vladimir Vasyaev, correctly noted: “In the summer I mowed the grass on the site, in the winter I cleaned the tracks from the snow. And the issue of physical activity is removed by itself, while with benefit for the cause. Moreover, this task need not be solved in one approach in the evening after work (or in the morning before it starts). A short “charge with equipment” can be carried out regularly - once every two hours so as not to linger without physical activity (it’s like a smoke break at the office) ”.
There are those who prefer to work outside the home (they rent a table, office or a place in coworking). Often they use the road to the workplace to ride a bike or take a walk on foot, receiving their daily physical activity along with a positive attitude: in the morning, if, of course, the road is a pleasure, there are forces to start a working day, and in the evening work problems remain on the way from work to home. But these features are available in office mode. Our conversation is about something else - about those who need to go on a chair to work ... a couple of meters.
In many ways, the choice of physical activity that each of our employees prefers depends on the methods of self-motivation that work for him personally and the time available (in fact, on the work schedule).
A fairly common approach is to take a gym membership and fit it into your own schedule to develop a habit. For example, you can go to the gym every night after work or in the morning, before it starts, several times a week. At the same time, the very fact of having a subscription works as a means of self-motivation: since I bought it, I need to use it.
To achieve great success in the chosen direction (do everything correctly) allow classes with a coach. The agreement with him helps to form a fixed schedule, which must be adhered to, and additionally motivates not to miss.
Dmitry Masterov, an expert in automated software testing: “For more than six months I have been going to the gym three times a week. My choice is classic superset training. I started with individual lessons with a trainer, since it is very important to put the right technique in order to avoid injuries, but after some time I began to practice by myself. Initially, the goal was to clean up, so at the same time I stick to a diet that was compiled with the trainer. In the four months of regular training, I lost 15 kg. ”
The gym does not have to imply very hard goals and a change of the whole life to get the result. You can just remember the goal, acting in pleasure.
Zoya Mironovich, a specialist in attracting talent: “In our region, the weather is such that playing sports in the open air is not always comfortable, but at home is uncomfortable and there are no simulators, therefore, I am engaged in the gym. Honestly, the most difficult thing is to walk to the hall. But the support of her husband and the availability of a subscription help not to miss workouts. An additional incentive to visit is the sauna, where you can remove muscle pain after a workout and relax a bit. The goal is also important for the discipline. In my case - throw off those extra pounds and keep the achieved result ”.
Not everyone, even on full time in remote mode, can boast a tight schedule. Someone depends on the client's schedule, which may be in a different time zone, and someone already adjusts the work for other life circumstances, while all other tasks receive a place in the schedule on a residual basis. When it is difficult to form a clear schedule of visiting the gym and even more so regular classes with a coach, you can rely on the sport that is available 24 hours a day.
“I was late for 40 minutes to practice, and that’s it will not be held as planned. And in my work, schedule changes are a standard thing. Therefore, I chose to walk fast in the park. Picked up the best route and the duration of the morning walk, so that during the day then not to experience discomfort, but at the same time have some result. And frankly, it helps. I noticed that if, for some reason, I had to skip this workout in the morning, I get sleepy during lunchtime - you need to sleep 15–20 minutes to restore your ability to think. If the training was, then I can stay creative until the evening. By the way, such activity at the same time reduces the impact of stress at work - walks are much more useful than a variety of “reality compensators” with degrees, ”- Sergey Marina, Operations Director.
Walking, by the way, is an excellent prevention of thrombosis. In general, for walking on foot it is not necessary to allocate a special slot of time in the busy schedule. You can walk on principle, taking children to gardens and schools, or have a dog to regularly get to the park (if dog walking is allowed there, of course).
Other activities are available on the street without a timetable. In many cities, street simulators are now installed, and in addition, there are platforms for standard physical education. On "Habré" they already wrote about how to use them to get results, working only with their own weight ( link ).
It's great if physical activity can be entered into the daily routine. But this does not mean that the rest of the day, you can sit with a clear conscience without movement. The load should be regular, and you should remind yourself of this.
For example, our specialist in attracting talent, Anastasia Shatilova, installed an application on her phone, which every hour reminds of the lack of activity: “I have dumbbells, a horizontal bar and a folding treadmill. I alternate activity to keep the muscles of the whole body in shape, and at the same time give the body cardiovascular exercise. The application on the phone once an hour reminds you that you need to rise from a chair and do a simple exercise that can be performed almost anywhere. I set myself a “brutal” mode, so for motivation, the phone sometimes uses rather sharp expressions. It helps me, and, importantly, does not take much time. ”
Just before planning such “classes instead of a smoke break,” it is worth exploring the question of how not to harm yourself: super-high loads in this mode without “warming up” will not do any good.
The most important question that will have to be solved by putting a physical load into your life is motivation. The remote interaction format is best suited to those who are focused on the result, therefore, in our company gathered “resultants”. However, when it is not about the main working draft, it is not easy to keep the focus on the goal. And then, as a means of self-motivation, a variety of pleasant additions to sports activities work.
It is necessary to figure out what you need, that will make you happy to return to physical exertion. For some, this is socialization in a sports club, someone needs certain sensations, such as relaxing your back while swimming. And someone needs to constantly learn and see something new. And this feature also helps not shirk from the sport, the main thing is to choose the right occupation. With such a new experience, it is hard to pedal on the simulator, looking at the wall or on the TV screen, it’s boring to swim back and forth in the pool. But it will be easier to take a bike and go around the neighborhood, trying every time to choose a new route.
Maxim Prudnikov, web developer: “In my opinion, playing sports on a schedule is a kind of organization. You buy a subscription, then you need to schedule visits, enter them into an existing, already rigid schedule. But the organized life is not very cool. You will only worry more about the fact that in the end somewhere, something does not grow together. I believe that sports activities should not be when “necessary” on a schedule, but when (and most importantly - because) in a rush. ”
As an instrument of motivation, specific sports such as bike trials, downhill skiing, diving, etc. can work. They are available only in a certain season (or in a certain geographic location), however, dreaming about future races (swims / hikes), in the offseason or between trips, you can exercise in the gym and at home with enthusiasm.
A little accompanying theory with Habr:
Unfortunately, the remote format of work does not allow employees to gather in teams, speaking together at competitions, and at the same time reinforcing that same team spirit. But this does not mean that sport is not needed. In addition to the prevention of a whole bunch of diseases, he disciplines and "airs" the head. At the same time, although the company compensates our employees for part of the costs of a healthy lifestyle, no one forces them to engage in exactly the kind of sport that the CEO prefers. Throughout the world, you can see examples of how, following top management, entire teams lose weight, climb to the mountains, and then run. Those who do not participate in “general fun” feel like outcasts in a team. And some companies even openly admit that sports preferences affect recruitment (they say, N was taken to work after joint training).
In remote format, no one will choose for you. If you want to - run or swim, and if you want - remove your office on the slide and every day, regardless of the weather, overcome the climb to sit at the desk. The main thing is to remember the ultimate goal: at a distance, physical activity is needed not for the company as a whole, and not for its individual adherents, but for your body, with which you also live!
Under the cut - about how our employees maintain their physical shape and why it is generally needed.
')
On the personnel portals, HRs of “office” companies constantly talk about the positive effects of group physical exertion on the team. This is the prestige of the company, and team building, and a component of the social package to attract personnel in one bottle. But sports activities in the office pursue not only corporate goals. For knowledge workers, regular exercise helps maintain performance over long periods of time and is less likely to hurt.
Doctors complain that with the development of the transport system, communications, and in general, with the increase in the standard of living, we move less and eat more, so gradually, mankind on average is gaining excess weight. But when planning work from home, no one even thinks about how much movement a person actually has who regularly gets to work at least an hour one way. Judge for yourself: you have to pack up, walk to a public transport stop, drive through (most often standing, straining different muscles periodically, along our roads, so as not to fall on other passengers). Motorists are spared from this training, but they should, for example, dig up a car in the winter season. Inside the office, too, it will not work all day to not get up from the chair. Pour coffee - already going to the kitchen or to the coffee maker. Yes, and the heels of flights of flights in a day you somehow overcome - especially if you smoke, and there are no premises for this in the business center.
Homes of all this is not. On the one hand, this, of course, is a big plus - there is no inappropriate expenditure of time on the road and meaningless office procedures. On the other hand, many are faced with the problem of physical inactivity. With full remote work (full time) it is at least 8 hours a day at the computer in a certain position. Pose is a separate topic, today we will not touch it. But even if it is perfect, the amount of movement is minimized. For lunch you can not go anywhere - the kitchen is close by, and even products today in large cities can be ordered with delivery, i.e. the chances of not leaving the apartment for several days are quite real.
Such a drastic reduction in physical activity, of course, saves time. But it is not for long. Today it can be used for interesting tasks, but if nothing is done, tomorrow this “reserve” will have to be spent on visits to doctors.
Typical problems
- Excess weight. In the absence of movement (while maintaining food intake), the muscles are simply replaced by fatty tissue. Here you have the extra weight with the attendant problems - ask the doctors, they will draw you a very depressing perspective. By the way, not eating at all here either will not help - the brain needs energy, and the rest of the body without nutrients will fail.
- Amyotrophy. It seems that you were 20 yesterday and did not threaten atrophy? But on the remote is a very real prospect, even if you have never experienced any specific health problems. Such a diagnosis was received by one of our employees after about a year and a half of work without control of physical activity (or rather, in conditions where physical activity was limited to transitions between the bed, the kitchen and the workplace).
- Diseases of the cardiovascular system. Venous stasis in the legs can lead to thrombosis, and this is not the only problem.
- Back pain. Sitting in a chair negatively affects the spine. The first guests of a person who is not trying to help his body are osteochondrosis and curvature of the spine. And there and close to the headaches (and try to focus on work, if unbearably headache).
- Mood and sleep. Lack of physical activity is depressing. And sleep after the day at the monitor is much more difficult.
The saddest thing is that if you do not catch these problems at an early stage, the body will become worse and worse. And so, by the age of 30 it is already possible to get a whole bunch of unpleasant diseases (we recommend contacting doctors for detailed diagnoses).
How are our employees struggling with this?
There are no ardent athletes among us. We are all ordinary people, with or without families, with our hobbies and laziness, who, if possible, try to weave sport into everyday life without making it an end in itself.
It is easier for those who live in their own home - for them, the maintenance of the dwelling itself and the adjacent territory already results in certain “exercises”. As our leading expert in automated testing, Vladimir Vasyaev, correctly noted: “In the summer I mowed the grass on the site, in the winter I cleaned the tracks from the snow. And the issue of physical activity is removed by itself, while with benefit for the cause. Moreover, this task need not be solved in one approach in the evening after work (or in the morning before it starts). A short “charge with equipment” can be carried out regularly - once every two hours so as not to linger without physical activity (it’s like a smoke break at the office) ”.
There are those who prefer to work outside the home (they rent a table, office or a place in coworking). Often they use the road to the workplace to ride a bike or take a walk on foot, receiving their daily physical activity along with a positive attitude: in the morning, if, of course, the road is a pleasure, there are forces to start a working day, and in the evening work problems remain on the way from work to home. But these features are available in office mode. Our conversation is about something else - about those who need to go on a chair to work ... a couple of meters.
In many ways, the choice of physical activity that each of our employees prefers depends on the methods of self-motivation that work for him personally and the time available (in fact, on the work schedule).
Gym on schedule
A fairly common approach is to take a gym membership and fit it into your own schedule to develop a habit. For example, you can go to the gym every night after work or in the morning, before it starts, several times a week. At the same time, the very fact of having a subscription works as a means of self-motivation: since I bought it, I need to use it.
To achieve great success in the chosen direction (do everything correctly) allow classes with a coach. The agreement with him helps to form a fixed schedule, which must be adhered to, and additionally motivates not to miss.
Dmitry Masterov, an expert in automated software testing: “For more than six months I have been going to the gym three times a week. My choice is classic superset training. I started with individual lessons with a trainer, since it is very important to put the right technique in order to avoid injuries, but after some time I began to practice by myself. Initially, the goal was to clean up, so at the same time I stick to a diet that was compiled with the trainer. In the four months of regular training, I lost 15 kg. ”
The gym does not have to imply very hard goals and a change of the whole life to get the result. You can just remember the goal, acting in pleasure.
Zoya Mironovich, a specialist in attracting talent: “In our region, the weather is such that playing sports in the open air is not always comfortable, but at home is uncomfortable and there are no simulators, therefore, I am engaged in the gym. Honestly, the most difficult thing is to walk to the hall. But the support of her husband and the availability of a subscription help not to miss workouts. An additional incentive to visit is the sauna, where you can remove muscle pain after a workout and relax a bit. The goal is also important for the discipline. In my case - throw off those extra pounds and keep the achieved result ”.
Fresh air without a schedule
Not everyone, even on full time in remote mode, can boast a tight schedule. Someone depends on the client's schedule, which may be in a different time zone, and someone already adjusts the work for other life circumstances, while all other tasks receive a place in the schedule on a residual basis. When it is difficult to form a clear schedule of visiting the gym and even more so regular classes with a coach, you can rely on the sport that is available 24 hours a day.
“I was late for 40 minutes to practice, and that’s it will not be held as planned. And in my work, schedule changes are a standard thing. Therefore, I chose to walk fast in the park. Picked up the best route and the duration of the morning walk, so that during the day then not to experience discomfort, but at the same time have some result. And frankly, it helps. I noticed that if, for some reason, I had to skip this workout in the morning, I get sleepy during lunchtime - you need to sleep 15–20 minutes to restore your ability to think. If the training was, then I can stay creative until the evening. By the way, such activity at the same time reduces the impact of stress at work - walks are much more useful than a variety of “reality compensators” with degrees, ”- Sergey Marina, Operations Director.
Walking, by the way, is an excellent prevention of thrombosis. In general, for walking on foot it is not necessary to allocate a special slot of time in the busy schedule. You can walk on principle, taking children to gardens and schools, or have a dog to regularly get to the park (if dog walking is allowed there, of course).
Other activities are available on the street without a timetable. In many cities, street simulators are now installed, and in addition, there are platforms for standard physical education. On "Habré" they already wrote about how to use them to get results, working only with their own weight ( link ).
Activity during the day
It's great if physical activity can be entered into the daily routine. But this does not mean that the rest of the day, you can sit with a clear conscience without movement. The load should be regular, and you should remind yourself of this.
For example, our specialist in attracting talent, Anastasia Shatilova, installed an application on her phone, which every hour reminds of the lack of activity: “I have dumbbells, a horizontal bar and a folding treadmill. I alternate activity to keep the muscles of the whole body in shape, and at the same time give the body cardiovascular exercise. The application on the phone once an hour reminds you that you need to rise from a chair and do a simple exercise that can be performed almost anywhere. I set myself a “brutal” mode, so for motivation, the phone sometimes uses rather sharp expressions. It helps me, and, importantly, does not take much time. ”
Just before planning such “classes instead of a smoke break,” it is worth exploring the question of how not to harm yourself: super-high loads in this mode without “warming up” will not do any good.
Finding the right motivation
The most important question that will have to be solved by putting a physical load into your life is motivation. The remote interaction format is best suited to those who are focused on the result, therefore, in our company gathered “resultants”. However, when it is not about the main working draft, it is not easy to keep the focus on the goal. And then, as a means of self-motivation, a variety of pleasant additions to sports activities work.
It is necessary to figure out what you need, that will make you happy to return to physical exertion. For some, this is socialization in a sports club, someone needs certain sensations, such as relaxing your back while swimming. And someone needs to constantly learn and see something new. And this feature also helps not shirk from the sport, the main thing is to choose the right occupation. With such a new experience, it is hard to pedal on the simulator, looking at the wall or on the TV screen, it’s boring to swim back and forth in the pool. But it will be easier to take a bike and go around the neighborhood, trying every time to choose a new route.
Maxim Prudnikov, web developer: “In my opinion, playing sports on a schedule is a kind of organization. You buy a subscription, then you need to schedule visits, enter them into an existing, already rigid schedule. But the organized life is not very cool. You will only worry more about the fact that in the end somewhere, something does not grow together. I believe that sports activities should not be when “necessary” on a schedule, but when (and most importantly - because) in a rush. ”
As an instrument of motivation, specific sports such as bike trials, downhill skiing, diving, etc. can work. They are available only in a certain season (or in a certain geographic location), however, dreaming about future races (swims / hikes), in the offseason or between trips, you can exercise in the gym and at home with enthusiasm.
A little accompanying theory with Habr:
- An article about a dream that among other things recommends physical activity at the right time.
- It is a little about different types of physical activity: pull-ups , running , push-ups .
- Useful article about the back - what is the risk of inattention to the question and how to avoid it. And the same story in a different way .
- A curious way to motivate yourself to engage on a stationary bike through DIY.
- About health at the computer , but more in the direction of landing, eyes, etc.
- Is it worth working while standing ?
Unfortunately, the remote format of work does not allow employees to gather in teams, speaking together at competitions, and at the same time reinforcing that same team spirit. But this does not mean that sport is not needed. In addition to the prevention of a whole bunch of diseases, he disciplines and "airs" the head. At the same time, although the company compensates our employees for part of the costs of a healthy lifestyle, no one forces them to engage in exactly the kind of sport that the CEO prefers. Throughout the world, you can see examples of how, following top management, entire teams lose weight, climb to the mountains, and then run. Those who do not participate in “general fun” feel like outcasts in a team. And some companies even openly admit that sports preferences affect recruitment (they say, N was taken to work after joint training).
In remote format, no one will choose for you. If you want to - run or swim, and if you want - remove your office on the slide and every day, regardless of the weather, overcome the climb to sit at the desk. The main thing is to remember the ultimate goal: at a distance, physical activity is needed not for the company as a whole, and not for its individual adherents, but for your body, with which you also live!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/453214/
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