If you live an inactive lifestyle, working from home for a long time can take a toll on your health. You don’t go out as much because of the pandemic. So if you work from home as well, you won’t have enough physical activity to maintain your health, especially if you don’t exercise regularly.
There’s also the common belief that sitting is the new smoking. Sitting for long hours isn’t good for your health and can result in musculoskeletal issues, such as neck and back pain. And if you spend most of your working hours on the computer, you also risk developing carpal tunnel syndrome if you don’t have proper ergonomics in your workspace.
The Importance of Improving Musculoskeletal Health
Musculoskeletal pain will hinder your movement and can disrupt different aspects of your life. Thus, you need to strengthen your musculoskeletal system since it’s the key to preserving your mobility and autonomy as you age.
If you happen to develop a musculoskeletal condition due to work, you can file a disability claim. But before it gets to that point, you need to put in more effort in strengthening your musculoskeletal system through regular exercise. Here are some simple exercises you can try at home:
Walking
The most basic exercise you can do is to walk. Walking will help you strengthen your bones and slow down bone loss as you age.
Ideally, you should do this exercise for at least 30 minutes a day. Walk around your house and maybe listen to your favorite playlist or a podcast to keep yourself entertained. You can also walk in your backyard in the morning to get some fresh air and vitamin D or climb up and down the stairs. Walking in place in your bedroom can also be just as effective.
Heavy Gardening
If you maintain a garden at home, you’ll be happy to know that some of your gardening tasks count as exercises. And the heavier tasks can help you strengthen your bones and muscles. Some of these heavier tasks include digging, shoveling, and pulling weeds from your lawn. Doing any of these three tasks (or all of them) for 15 to 30 minutes will already count as a workout.
Strength-building Exercises
It may be a little on the nose, but you also need to do strength-building exercises to build bone strength. Here are some of the most common ones you can try:
- push-ups
- crunches
- planking
- squats
- lunges
These are the kinds of exercises that a lot of people usually avoid. They’re simple, but they’re very tiring. If you don’t know where or how to start, find one or two fitness videos online with these exercises combined in a short routine. Follow these videos as they can help you set your pace, and eventually, you’ll be able to build a routine that works for you.
Yoga
Yoga is a low-impact physical activity, so it’s less intimidating than other forms of exercise. But even though yoga is simple, it can help a lot in improving your musculoskeletal health. For example, yoga will help you improve your flexibility. This is important to correct your posture and preserve your mobility. Also, if you become more flexible, you’ll significantly reduce your risk of injury.
Yoga is a full-body exercise. But you can do routines that target specific parts of your body. For example, you can do a 15-minute routine that targets back pain if you’re too busy to do a longer workout.
Jump Rope
Jumping rope is another simple exercise you can do. It’s a full-body workout. So this is a more holistic approach to bettering your physical health.
Some experts say that a person should avoid jumping rope if they feel pain in their back and legs. People with arthritis should also skip this exercise. This is no surprise since the exercise involves pounding your joints as you jump.
If you don’t experience any pain in these areas, jumping rope every day will help you build and tone your muscles. Although you might want to consult your physician just to make sure. You should also wear the right gear to keep yourself safe from injury. For example, wear sports shoes when you jump rope instead of just wearing slippers.
These are only a few of the many workouts you can do at home. You can do them at any time of the day, so you can easily sneak them into your busy schedule, too, if you’re fully committed to improving your musculoskeletal health.
