The Ultimate Office Workout with Currys PC World

Last week marked a big change in the Real Mum Reviews household, as after 13 long months on maternity leave I returned to work *sob*. Not only have I had one child start nursery as the other starts school, but also threw a brand new job into the equation just to make life a little more complicated! 🙂

The one major downside of an office job is that most of my day is spent sat on my slightly over-padded (who am I kidding, VERY over-padded) derriere. Having not lost all the baby weight that I wanted to whilst on maternity leave, sitting in a relatively sedentary job was never going to help matters. Whilst my brain is certainly getting a real workout, my body, unfortunately, is not.

I recently blogged about a recent survey found that 52% of people skip their allocated lunch breaks at least once a week, meaning that many people stay sitting down at their desks for a full 8 hours bar the odd toilet or coffee visit, even during lunch time. Not great for a healthy lifestyle is it?!

Currys PC World think they have come up with the solution, and recently put me to the test with their 20 minute Ultimate Office Workout. They have teamed up with Fitbit and London Fitness Guy to create five high-intensity exercises, to help you feel more energised during your working day. They sent me a fitbit, and asked me to check them out for myself.

These exercises are very easy to follow (even for someone with no rhythm, special awareness and a difficulty differentiating between left and right). They include Desk Press Ups and Chair Splits, Tricep Dips, Calf Raises and Shoulder Presses. Whilst high intensity, these exercises are simple enough to incorporate into the workplace and form part of your average day.

My Experience

I’m not going to lie, as this is a new job I did warn my colleagues what I was doing. Being only on week 2, I didn’t think it was wise to break out into an unannounced chair split without warning, for fear of looking like the ‘new creepy weirdo on the fifth floor’, However, working for a local authority, anything that encourages a happy and healthy workplace is definitely positively received. I even managed to get a few of the team doing calf raises during our team meetings – happy days!

Using the fitbit (with the new fitbit alta being slim and stylish making it perfectly acceptable office attire), I was able to track my progress during every workout. Doing the exercises daily for one week, I worked off between 112 and 164 calories doing the full 20 minute workout – presumably depending on how vigorously I committed to the challenge! 🙂

As Currys PC World kindly reminded me, this is the same as 25g of salted popcorn (although NOT an excuse to eat more Lucy, MUST remember this last bit!!!). If I committed to do this daily, I could burn off an extra 27,000 calories a year – the same as consuming 130 KitKat bars – and everyone knows I LOVE a kit kat.

Carrying out the trial for just one week has really opened my eyes into just how easy it is to add a bit of exercise into your day. As daft as it may sound, I could actually physically feel that I’d done the exercises the following morning (particularly the calves!), and knowing the risks associated with sitting for long periods at a time, I am keen to ensure I don’t become a statistic of heart disease and diabetes!

The fitbit is also scarily addictive. Not only can I check in with my friends who have them and see if I can beat their daily step score (not that I am competitive much!), but I can set little notifications to encourage me to at least stand and move around for a few minutes if I have been sat for a substantial amount of time. This coupled with my walk to and from the carpark (intentionally parking a little further away than I need to), is hopefully a good step towards regaining some of my fitness. I can now also make myself feel marginally better about my shopping addiction, by tracking just how many calories I have burned off during my lunch break whilst perusing around Touchwood. 🙂 – it’s all in the name of research. 🙂

Want to get involved? You can check out the full exercises (including images!) on the Currys PC World Ultimate Workout Page. Why not try and incorporate them into your daily routine and see how many calories you burn off?

*This post is in collaboration with Currys PC World and fitbit. I received a fitbit free of charge to track my calories during the exercises. All thoughts and opinions are my own*