Programmer's Exercise

4/25/2006

As a programmer, you probably don't get a lot of extra exercise during the average work day. You will need to make a bit of extra effort to incorporate it. Not only is it helpful to your diet, but it also will help increase the blood flow and give you more stamina throughout your workday.

When you wake up, try doing some of those stretches you learned in high school gym class. If you live in an apartment (not on the first floor) take the stairs to go check the mail, or take the long way in your usual walking around the house. As you sit at your desk typing away and working hard, make sure you have a swivel chair to twist and turn in. Your hands will stay on the keyboard while your waist does the work to keep you going back and fourth. Even the slightest efforts will help.

As silly and unproductive as it may seem, you may want to rearrange your home office a slight bit. Put your handy dandy stapler on the windowsill at the other end of the room, or your stack of discs on the file cabinet that has been moved further from your reach while you are sitting. This is a great way to force yourself to become more mobile and give you a need for some added exercise. Be careful to remember where you put those items though, a rampage through the house to find that disc you need in a hurry could waste some valuable work time!

During your work day it is a great idea to make sure that you are moving around at least once every hour. Not only does it give you an opportunity to get a bit of exercise, but it also helps keep the blood flowing. There have actually been a few cases where people got so consumed by their computer usage that they have suffered blood clots due to lack of movement! Even frequent changes in your sitting position and occasionally shaking out your arms, wrists, and fingers will help. After all, you can't accomplish as much work if you have tendinitis, or much worse - blood clots! The time you spend doing these little things will be well worth it when you compare it to the physical pain that could result in a potential time consuming and expensive hospital visit!

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