This is how I work out at home – my best tips
Surely you’re aware that as an employee at KTH, you have the right to spend one working hour per week on a health and wellness activity? What can you do during your wellness hour when you are working at home because of the coronavirus? Here some KTH colleagues share their own health and wellness activities, as an inspiration to get started.
Everything you need to know about the wellness hours and KTH's wellness promotion subsidy.
CBH’s very own yogi keeping it up at home
Johanna Hagerman at School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health:
Johanna Hagerman usually holds yoga classes for her fellow colleagues at CBH, and working from home does not stop her from doing yoga.
“I do yoga and I take walks in the forest.”
Having small children, it can be hard to find the time to get away, and when that is the case Johanna works out at home.
“I try to do yoga for 15 – 30 minutes every day. Getting out into the woods is both soothing to me and raises my pulse a little, giving my body its daily dose of exercise,” says Johanna Hagerman.
Maintaining daily discipline is always a challenge and it is easier to slack with the exercises when doing them at home instead of going to a teacher who tells you what to do.
“When I am able to maintain my every day routine, I experience a special balance and a stress reducing effect.”
Johanna Hagerman's tip is to find a routine at a reasonable level of ambition, that you know you can manage to maintain. A little bit of exercise a day is better than nothing at all and the every bit counts.
”I have the same routines for work out at home”
Elina Eriksson at School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science:
It feels like I have been preparing for a long time to be able to cope with working from home and being quarantined, because for the past 4 years I have worked out with a training app where I have a digital coach who tells me what to do.
I run and work out using the body weight. I also go horse riding once a week, and thankfully they haven't cancelled those classes.
I have noticed that you sit down more when working from home, so I try to walk before I start work in the morning.
We also have a Slack channel where we help to work more focused in the 40-minute sessions. There we have started doing two x ten, which means that in the breaks, someone suggests two different exercises with ten repetitions, for example ten lunges and ten push ups.
Sometimes I also manage to squeeze in a shorter yoga session. For those who want to, I can recommend trying on 30-day yoga with Adriane on Youtube . Perhaps you’ll get a new habit!
Ping-pong in the park
Ulrika Georgsson at School of Industrial Engineering and Management:
For the four girls at ITM Communications, the Fridays ahead equal hanging out in a park and breathing fresh air. In the first hour, they deal with job issues over a lunch box in the park. The second hour is sweatier. At the premiere in Vårflodsparken, they gathered around the ping-pong table.
“It was a lot of run and a lot of fun!" says Ulrika Georgsson, one of the communications officers who replaced her desk job with round ping-pong for a while.
Afterwards, the girls had so much energy that they decided to repeat the success every week. “Who knows,” says Ulrika, “next time we may be doing bike polo or obstacle course racing. We have to get revenge on Jenni who won last week! ”
“I use the weekly wellness hour for pleasant walks around Abrahamsberg”
Hanna Sundelin at the University Administration:
Hanna Sundelin likes the gym Friskis & Svettis, but at home the others think it's a bad idea right now because of the coronavirus. Walking instead gives a physical and mental lift.
"In my heart and soul I am really a couch potato. Therefore, I try to get out before breakfast just to get it done.
She also has a rubber band that she uses for stretching exercises in front of the computer.
"It helps to loosen up my shoulders and arms that easily take a beating in the home office. It also works great to do the exercises while I am in digital meetings, she adds.
Hanna Sundelin also points out that there are outdoor gyms in many locations. They are often less crowded early in the day and there are instructions at each station. If you want to work out at home, one tip is to see what the larger gym chains have for online training tips and workouts.
"It has become even more important now to try to keep the routines with training when you are at home all day."
HannaSara Karlsson at School of Engineering Sciences:
She is positive about the wellness hour and thinks it is important whether it is used to take a walk or more advanced forms of exercise as it contributes to increasing well-being. HannaSara exercises regularly, at least 40 minutes every other day.
Before the coronavirus started to spread, HannaSara used her wellness hour to train with other colleagues at KTH every Tuesday. Together, they mixed strength training and fitness with Lill-Jansskogen's resources as tools.
Regarding training during the current “corona times”, HannaSara says: “It has become even more important now to try to keep the routines with training when you are at home all day. Exercise regularly. It's so easy to get stuck in front of your computer. "
In order to stick to your routines, she believes that it is necessary to have discipline and to succeed in staying healthy. HannaSara herself has a training band that hangs on the door on the way to the kitchen where she usually does some one-minute exercises every time she passes by. Training with colleagues in the forest has been replaced by “zoom training” because everyone works from home.
Words: Jon Lindhe, Moa Hörnquist, Ulrika Georgsson, Marianne Norén och Daniel Sellgren