Active daily routine at home

We all do a lot of things every day without paying much attention to them. However, many of these activities can be ideally combined with a few exercises that can make a big contribution to making everyday life more active. After all, once you have combined certain activities with an additional task often enough, the additional task becomes as natural as the activity itself.

1. It starts with getting out of bed. Instead of just jumping out of bed, get into the habit of doing 5-10 crunches or a few sun salutations before going to the bathroom or kitchen.
2. Washing your hands and brushing your teeth are also ideal. Exercises to activate the muscle-venous pump for the legs are particularly useful here. For example, walking on the spot or standing on your tiptoes and then rolling your feet up to your heels. Without touching the ground with your heels, you then go back up on your toes.
3. Every time you wait, whether it's for the water to boil for your nourishment or for a document to be printed out, you can combine it with small exercises such as a few tricep dips on the kitchen chair or squats.
4. Reading or going through some flashcards doesn't have to be done sitting down either. Grab the cards or a book, walk around the room or practise wall sits: place your feet firmly on the floor parallel to each other and lean against a wall with your back straight. Make sure that your knees do not protrude beyond your ankles.
5. ALWAYS take the ringing of the phone as a signal to get up first. Then you can still decide whether you need to sit down again to take notes, for example, or whether you can move around the room while talking on the phone.
6. And stretch again before going to bed: Gently stretch your arms, legs and back to help you sleep even better.

During a working day at a desk, short breaks for exercise are extremely important. They not only help to prevent back problems and neck tension, but also increase concentration and productivity. However, it is important to actively plan in these movement breaks when structuring your working day.
This can be done according to a set schedule, such as the Pomodoro technique, in which 25-minute concentration phases alternate with five-minute (movement) breaks. (Setting an alarm clock helps here)
Sometimes, however, it can also be more favourable or necessary to plan movement breaks for specific times, such as after a video conference, reading a chapter or completing a work step.

Tips for organising exercise breaks

1. Put together a playlist with your 20 favourite songs: Music not only helps with motivation, but also with structuring the timing of exercise breaks.
2. Open the window during every break, because fresh air is healthy and energising.
3. Stretching and mobilisation exercises are generally suitable as a break activity, and after a short warm-up, powerful and dynamic movements such as press-ups, sit-ups, forearm supports, squats or jumping. You can find suggestions and instructions for suitable exercises under University Sports in audio and video format.
4. Do you have some small fitness equipment? Perfect, take them off the shelf and put them in your room, visible and ready for use. Use the Theraband in the first break, jump rope in the second and use the fascia roller in the third.
5. Make an appointment with flatmates or family members - many exercises are great to do in pairs, for example for balance and coordination. For example, stand opposite each other on one leg and throw a suitable object to each other at different heights, e.g. a sandbag or a tennis ball. It also works with a knotted towel. There are lots of objects in the household that can be perfectly repurposed for exercise breaks. Get creative!
6. Celebrate yourself. After finishing a chapter or an exhausting video conference, simply turn up the music (with headphones if necessary) and dance around the room. This also works very well at the end of the day, both alone and together with your family or flatmates.

If you have to sit, then sit dynamically. Sitting at work cannot usually be completely avoided. Dynamic sitting involves changing sitting positions as often as possible, i.e. between a front, centre and rear sitting position (always with a straight back).

• Front sitting posture: the angle between the upper body and thighs is less than 90°
• Middle sitting posture: corresponds to the upright posture (upper body posture = 90°)
• Rear sitting posture: a reclined posture in which the angle is greater than 90°

In addition, small activation exercises can also help to prevent health problems while sitting.

Tips for activation while sitting

1. Stretch your arms vertically upwards from time to time, stretching the muscles in the back of your shoulders and back.
2. Stretch your arms out to the side at a 90-degree angle to stretch the chest and front shoulder muscles.
3. Sitting upright, you can also stretch out your legs - either alternately or both together, alternately pulling and stretching the tips of your feet.
4. If your desk chair is stable enough, you can lean on your hands or fists from time to time to relax your back, push yourself up from the seat and stay there for a few seconds.
5. When sitting upright, you can also rotate your upper body slightly to the left and right only as far as is comfortable for you and without making a hollow back.

You can also find more exercises in our office chair yoga.