This fall, I’m working entirely from home, zooming for my classes and all manner of meetings. Who knew that the pandemic would bring with it even more meetings? Sigh.
Three things I miss about being at my workplace:
- seeing my students and colleagues in actual person
- the transition time of my drive to and from school (although I am thrilled to be temporarily shed of late-day traffic!)
- the everyday movement I get from walking and standing while teaching and tooling around on campus
With respect to 1, I’ve made camera use for my zoom classes optional, but told them I really like seeing their faces when they’re up for it. Many of them have cameras on various times, and some never do. But we’ve getting to know each other despite the limitations.
For 2, I’ve been meditating first thing in the morning (after coffee, of course). It’s helping me in a hundred ways, of which #46 is: provides transition between getting up and getting to work in the morning. It’ll do.
But for 3, I’ve had more trouble figuring out a plan. Standing with my laptop perched somewhere doesn’t feel comfortable for teaching. I’m sure there are lots of other options, especially with extra A/V equipment. But for now, I put my laptop on my yoga bolster (which is on top of my yoga blocks) and sit in front of it. It’s working well enough.
But that still doesn’t address the everyday movement problem.
Enter short yoga/qigong breaks. After class and in between meetings, I’ve been doing short (5–10 minute) yoga breaks, aided either by Adriene (of Yoga with Adriene fame) or Bad Yogi (another fav of mine) or my own memory of qigong classes I’ve taken (boy do I miss in-person yoga and qigong!). I also have some DVDs, obtained during a bout of late-night online shopping. Usually I do hip openers (to deal with all the sitting), but any movement feels good.
On days when I’m not teaching, I’m using a Pomodoro app to remind me to stop working and get out of my chair every 25 minutes for a 5-minute break. Tracy has used this technique and wrote about it here. Others among our bloggers like it, too.
For these breaks, it’s my choice. Sometimes I use the break to do something practical, like take out trash or recycling (which involves two sets of stairs down and then up). I’m right now thinking about other quick-ish fun exercise-y things to provide some novelty. Any suggestions would be most welcome.
One idea I had yesterday that’s coming back is incorporating the New York Times so-called 6-minute workout more often as a mini-break activity. I wrote about the skepticism and criticism around it here for the blog. But, this post also contains the list of all the exercises, in case you can’t get to the actual NY Times article. The workout takes longer than 6 minutes– more like 15 or so– but that’s still in the mini-category. I’ll report back on how smoothly it gets incorporated into the daily movement plan.
One final idea: set up my bike trainer to do short spins (10–15 minutes? Not sure). For this one, I’m not sure if I want to do this, or what I would do for a short amount of time. Ideas, anyone? Have any of you done short (say 20 minutes or less) workouts on a spin bike or trainer? I know, I can look this up. But I value your experience. Let me know if anything has worked for you.
I’ve done yoga, dog walks, and TRX in breaks. Never bike riding. Too sweaty!
Are you feeling brave? Because you can use a roller with your bike, and it’s more about skills than effort. When I am doing a roller day I almost never do more than 30 minutes, and 15 would be ample if that’s the right amount of time for your schedule.But if you have not used a roller, get someone to introduce you to it gently. It is surprisingly tricky!
My daughter bought a quality rowing machine and she rows vigorously between each client call. Previously she had to walk a lot for her job and she found she was getting flabby working from home. She already had a bike and with the rowing machine she finds she can work movement in throughout her day.
Dance breaks! I’ll dance to one upbeat song every half hour or two songs every hour, depending on my meeting schedule. It’s especially helpful mid-afternoon, when my morning person superpowers have begun to fade.