by Gerald George Mannikarote, MBBS MBA
When I travel for work I make it a point to hit the gym. It’s not an easy thing to do, but I feel that it needs to be done. But there was a time when a gym was not easily accessible to me. What was I supposed to do?
Many of you may have been in similar situations. Like when I worked the night shift and was glued to a chair. Or when I had an office job and was glued in front of a computer monitor. Or when I was a sales guy, glued into the driver’s seat of my car.
It took me many, many years to realize what I was doing. In fact, I have to admit that I do the same thing once in a while even today. And the truth was that I didn’t want to realize what I was doing.
What I was doing was actually what I was NOT doing. I was not working out. I was not moving. I was not moving at all. And I was using my work as an excuse to remain sedentary.
I wanted to exercise. I wanted to be healthy. I knew all the right things to do. But I was not doing them- because I was working. And I was working hard. So what was I supposed to do? How was I supposed to fit exercise into my schedule? How was I supposed to work out? And nobody understood that I had a 1 hour drive each way to and from work!
I finally realized that I was full of excuses. My night shift job had a gym which I had full access to. My office job had a 1 hour break for lunch. My sales job had flexible hours. I was making excuses for being a sedentary person. I was justifying my situation by saying that I was busy.
I was once offered an online fitness coach by one of the companies that I worked for. I decided to accept the offer. I was hoping that she would give me the BEST workout to get healthy. I was a busy executive after all.
Then she told me something that made me change the way I approached things. She said I needed to MOVE! I needed to simply get up and move.
When I parked my car to meet a customer, I was asked to park my car as far away from the door as possible; causing me to walk a lot more than I was used to. If I stopped to make a phone call, instead of remaining comfortably seated, I was asked to try to stand up and have my call. I was also asked to try to get to my next appointment a little earlier and walk a little bit around the complex or office before going in.
I began to realize all the other opportunities I missed. I could have found a quiet corner in my office and blasted off a few push-ups. I could have utilized the available gyms and avoided traffic at my other jobs. I could have got up from my chair and remained standing for a few minutes at a time. I could have. I could have. I could have.
I realized that the best exercise was to SIMPLY move! I just had to move. I justified my sedentary lifestyle by saying that I was a busy employee. I sat for 8 – 9 hours. I sat in traffic to work for 1 hour. I sat in traffic from work for 1 hour. That was 10 – 11 hours of sitting in a day. Then, of course, because I was such a hard working person, I came home and sat in front of the TV for another few hours.
When I finally learned that I needed to move, I changed my approach to working out. I realized that the BEST workout for a busy executive was to simply MOVE! Get out of your chair. Get out of your seat. GET UP AND MOVE!
So what do you do think? Do you think the best workout for a busy exec is to move? What do you think is the best workout? Leave your thoughts in the comments. You can also contact me at jerrydmann@dmanntraining.com
