If you must stand around or sit for long hours each day, you may suffer from what I call “sedentary fatigue”. I’ve worked with thousands who feel more tired, the longer they sit at their desk. Getting a boost of energy can be as simple as standing up and walking down the hall for a few seconds. Blood flow is minimized when sitting and standing. Your metabolism rate slows down also. If you break out of this minimal activity by walking for 2-5 minutes, every 30 minutes or so, you’ll increase oxygen flow while you energize the body organism. This movement will usually energize the brain.

It’s better to walk more frequently, than to walk longer, a few times during the day. For example, a 2-4 minute walk, every 30-45 minutes, works better for most people than 10-15 minutes every 2-3 hours. Frequent short bursts, helps the body and mind to work together.

But if you have trouble taking even a 2 minute break, any leg movement is better than none. I’ve heard from many who have used walks a short as 30 seconds to “wake up the metabolism” from a sedentary stretch at the desk or computer.

Longer workouts build extra stamina. During marathon season, as marathon runners increase their long runs, they often find that they don’t get as tired at the end of the day. The key is to go slowly enough on these longer workouts, insert enough walk breaks, and take a day off from exercise, the day before the long one. A long walk or run of 60-90 minutes, each week will improve stamina significantly among those who are not going this long.

The long walk or run is usually scheduled early on a weekend day, when family and career activities are not in conflict. To prepare for a community fitness event, such as a 5K, 10K, Half Marathon, or Marathon, the distance should increase every other week, to the event distance.

Research has shown that breaking up the distance of the weekday walks (even runs) will maintain the weekend stamina as well as if the weekday activity was done at one time. To maintain 90 minute stamina from your weekend workout, you only need to get in a total of 20-30 minutes on two days a week, such as Tuesday and Thursday. You can break up this time in segments of 1-5 minutes, throughout the day.

So even when you feel too tired to move, stand up and walk for a minute. Chances are, you increase vitality, mental attitude, and your brain will work better when you sit down at the computer. 

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