Eat4Today

It is challenging to exercise in a cube, which is why it is important that you do so.
Keeping the bdy in one cramped position is detrimental. Use these ideas to get you started, and you will soon find yourself inventing new ones that you can post here for others.

You may not be able to have the music, but you can pull your chair back a little and pretend to be Liza Minelli in Cabaret, crossing one leg and then the other while lifting cans of soft drink in alternating hands.

Ladies if you are not wearing the nylon stockings, you can exercise your feet under your desk. Even if you are wearing stockings, or if you are a gentleman dressed in socks, you can obtain a can of soft drink from the vending machine and roll it under your feet.

Try to keep the shoes removed as much as possible. If you wear them rarely enough your feet will not swell and make it difficult to put them on again. With shoes removed, you can flex and wiggle the toes, make circles with the ankles, and cause less circulation impairment from sitting in the chair.

If your cube is seldom visited, use your desk as a barre and pretend to be a ballerina, with
one hand on the desk, raise the leg, keeping it very straight out in front of you, lower it slowly, and repeat several times. Now turn the self 90 degrees and raise the leg parallel with the side, repeat, and finally, turn the self again and raise the leg behind you, parallel with the back.

If you are not wearing constricting clothing, you can also use this method to perform the ballerina style plie, or knee bend. Do not try to put the feet in an official ballet position, just use the traditional walk like a duck foot placement, and keeping one hand on the desk for balance, bend the knees gently, and rise back up. Do not try to go all the way to the ground. This advice applies to all ballet inspired exercises. Your goal is not to give competition to Nuryev or Tallchief, but to stretch and strengthen the same muscles they did. Never raise the leg so high that you feel pain!

Do not worry if you cannot raise your leg as high as a ballerina does. For gentlemen especially, it is likely this will never happen. Even ladies will not be able to achieve a high leg lift unless they have practiced this since childhood. But you will exercise the same muscles and obtain the same benefit even if the leg is raised only a few inches. For safety I will repeat another warning. Do not attempt to arrange the legs and feet in official ballet positions. To do this correctly requires rotating the leg outward from the hip, and unless the muscles and tendons are trained to do this in childhood, you can injure yourself. (Even if you practiced this discipline as a child, still do not try to do it, or not all at once, because the tendons will have returned to natural state, and you must gently return them to the ability to achieve the outwardly rotated position, very gradually and over a long time.)

When you talk on the telephone, stand up, and as you talk, raise the self on the tip toes and lower slowly until the conversation ends.

Depending on your routine, designate certain tasks that you will perform standing. While standing, lift one foot to the side, leg straight, and move the leg in small circles. Repeat with other leg.

Every hour, rise from the chair and touch the palms to the floor keeping the knees straight, then raising your arms straight out in front of you, rise back up and try to place the palms on the ceiling. Do not stand on the tip toes, your goal is to vertically stretch the self.

Remain standing, and put hands on hips, now turn the torso as far to the left as you can, so that your right elbow will be directly in front of you. Then turn to the right, so that the left elbow is in front.

You can see that the philosophy is “How can I move in my cube?” Apply this question to every task, and ideas will occur to you that you can share with other cube dwellers here!