There is a writer’s joke that goes like this: I didn’t have time to write it short, so I wrote it long. Writing is a process of refining what you want to say, and cutting out the excess. This often takes many revisions.

In the same way, exercising quickly is far less demanding than if you do it slowly.  Counter intuitive? Possibly.

To slow down is lose momentum. And it can take a while to find a slower rhythm.  Meditative practitioners know that it takes time for the mind to calm down. You can’t meditate quickly. Studies have shown that meditators tend to be calmer.

Slowed down exercises allows the organism time to differentiate new and more graceful patterns of movement.  Our brains map a personal area around the body known as peripersonal space. When we exercise, we stimulate proprioceptors which are nerve cells that measure stretch and body position, and so we create new neural pathways.  Regular practice of these exercises, or any meditative practice, changes the brain over time.

The rest of this sequence is on YouTube.

Particularly for us older adults (your writer is 60) balance and flexibility matter. The law of biological atrophy is unrelenting.  In other words, use it or lose it.  The body is more than transport to get your head to meetings.  This sequence of eighteen slow movements has been my daily practice for the past twelve years.  Am I just lucky I don’t suffer the aches and pains of others my age, or does this practice have something to do with it?

An investment of twenty minutes a day can be rewarding.

Many of us have lofty goals, not just for us, but for our employees. We will eat less. We will exercise more. We start out with great enthusiasm. We imagine our future selves as energetic, alert, and able to cope with the everyday stresses the workplace brings.

We have little trouble knowing what to do. It’s the actual doing it that makes things tricky. Workplace wellness programs offer rewards for good behavior. Nutritional and exercise information is important. But long-term habits don’t change overnight by simply having information presented to us.  Don’t you agree?

Workplace environment

I’m sure we can agree that a healthier workplace environment makes sense.

At one time the publishing industry was said to run on alcohol. Of course, three-martini lunches and smoking are long gone from the workplace. But at the time, few saw smoking at work as worth complaining about. It was normal, just like sitting in a chair all day at meetings, or in front of a computer.

Can you imagine a caffeine-free workplace? Yes, it’s hard to imagine. Yet caffeine is a powerful stimulant, along with its inevitable let down. If caffeine addiction wasn’t so widespread it wouldn’t be seen as normal. I want to point out here that your writer doesn’t abstain but is a moderate user.

Employers welcomed such a stimulant. It gave the illusion of promoting productivity, and in a sense it did ─ compared to how things used to be. In the days of the Industrial Revolution, the drink of choice at work was beer. Imagine! The point is that workplace orthodoxy changes over time.

Even small changes can lead in the right direction. How easy would it be for the office canteen to  cook with less salt? Can that vending machine sell healthy snacks?

Peer pressure

Our biology was not designed for us to sit at computers all day. We need to move about. Does the workplace environment encourage movement, or look at it as an aberration? Is there space to stretch? Is there any way of allowing employees some physical vigor during the work day? If no one previously exercised at work, then those that do will seem eccentric. Workplace wellness professionals must advocate for physical movement because peer pressure matters.

Fortunately, there are exercises designed for computer users. The University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey and the University of Oklahoma (OU) have licensed Easy Desktop Yoga, a workplace-wellness product, allowing employees to workout at their desks. OU ran a pilot  before expanding the program.

Exercise is gaining acceptance in the workplace. It hasn’t replaced caffeine yet, but this, like all changes, will happen gradually. The advantage to Easy Desktop Yoga is that it is easy. Making a small change is far more likely to lead to long-term habit change than grandiose plans.
Let’s make it easy.