Fiorella Rafael remembers feeling stiff at the end of every day in her old office job. “That lack of movement would creep up and compound over the week,” she says. Though standing and walking meetings were encouraged, with deadlines to meet it wasn’t always tenable. “It’s partly what drove me to become a pilates instructor,” she says.
Now Rafael teaches pilates at Sydney’s Scout Studios, where she meets people like me who spend far too much time sitting. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 46.9% of Australian adults described their jobs as mostly sitting down, which might explain why only 22.4% of Australian adults met the physical activity guidelines in 2022. In England, one in four do less than 30 minutes of exercise a week, and in the US only about half of the adult population is meeting the guidelines of at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise a week. Worldwide, that’s nearly 1.8 billion people, says the World Health Organization.
I’m one of those mostly inactive people, especially since having a child and returning to full-time work. It’s not as easy to find the time for classes, or an active commute, and I am generally better at constructing an email while sitting.
“We’re not really designed to sit the whole time like we do in modern life,” says University of Sydney school of public health professor Cathie Sherrington. Too much time spent sitting has been linked to heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers. “So anything that breaks up that sedentary behaviour helps.”
Helping inactive people get fitter is what Yago Aldir does every day as a personal trainer and co-owner at the Melbourne gym Project Better. He suggests stacking habits to help bring more incidental exercise into everyday life. “You might not have 30 minutes but you might have 10 x three minutes throughout your day,” he says.
So how should we spend those three minutes?
1. Calf raises
Calf raises “don’t look too silly” in public, says Rafael, who likes to do a set while waiting for the kettle to boil. Stand with your weight equally distributed across both legs, lift and lower the heels. “Instead of cranking up on to the balls of your feet, try to peel the length of your foot off, hold that, feel the wobble, then delicately drape the feet back down. We don’t want the ankles to sickle, and don’t rely on momentum to come up and down.”
Always up for a challenge, I do a stealth set of calf raises while I’m waiting for a takeaway coffee. My calves feel as though they’re burning after 10. I get a few curious glances but it’s a success. A positive layer on my habit stack.
Sherrington, who specialises in falls prevention and healthy ageing, tells me she does calf raises while waiting for the shower’s hot water to come in. “I can get 30 done in that time.”
2. Wall sits
“Wall sits are great for hip health,” Rafael says. Find a sturdy wall that’s free of hooks, brackets or other snags, then with your back against the wall, sit with your legs at a 90-degree angle, as though you’re in an imaginary chair. “Engage your core, hamstrings and quadriceps and hold for 30 seconds, or as long as you can,” she says. “Be mindful of any previous injuries that might affect how much load you can hold, and if you want to challenge yourself, try to float your hands off your knees.”
Surely I could hold a three-minute wall sit during my phone call, I think. How hard could it be? Less than a minute in, my legs are shaking. “When you’re up against the wall, there’s no faking it,” says Rafael, sounding disappointed with my effort. I try again a week later: 40 seconds. My heart is racing, but this feels good – like progress.
3. Balance on one leg
“Balance is important from a longevity point of view,” Aldir says. “While the kettle is boiling, you could stand on one leg, with your eyes closed, and see how good your balance is on one side. Then repeat on the other side and compare. Aim for longer each time.”
At 4pm in the office, I get up to go to the kitchen (for a biscuit). While I’m there, I close my eyes and test my balance. My knee-length skirt limits my range, but I hold steady on my left leg for four seconds then for six on my right. With my eyes open, it’s far easier and I can count to at least 10. Back at my desk, I look up Michael Mosley’s old quote: “If you can reach 10 seconds with your eyes closed, you’re doing well.” One to work towards.
4. Take the stairs – and add step-up and step-downs
Simply taking the stairs “would be considered vigorous intensity activity”, says Associate Prof Sjaan Gomersall, an expert in physical activity, sedentary behaviour and health at the University of Queensland. That makes stairs an “awesome” opportunity to build in incremental exercise.
On your way up, Rafael suggests building in a glute exercise, by taking two or three steps with one leg, then engaging the core and glutes to bring the other leg to the top step, pausing and bringing the other leg down again, and repeating. “Keep the core engaged to take one leg back down at a time,” she says. “Do this without leaning too far forward or tilting to the side, and keep hips and shoulders square.”
I make it my mission to use the office fire escape for active breaks from my desk. It’s dusty, windowless, but pedestrian-free. I opt for three steps at a time, careful not to go too quickly and hold myself upright. It’s boring and feels slow; I’d much rather get to the top as fast as I can. As far as habit stacking goes, I’ll leave this off the pile.
5. Elevated incline push-ups
You don’t need to put your hands on the floor to do a push-up, especially in public in your normal clothes, says Aldir: “You can do it against a bench or a wall.” Elevated incline push-ups are slightly easier, and though you might not break into a sweat, you still move your chest, shoulders and arms.
Arms should be at shoulder-width, with elbows slightly back and closer to the ribs than 90 degrees. “The important part is to keep your core engaged almost like you’re doing a plank,” he says. Aim for five to 10 push-ups. “Level one could be against the wall, level two could be against the bench,” he says. And while he acknowledges it may look awkward, “level three could be on the ground”.
Finding an empty meeting room, I try five level-one push-ups. It feels too easy but also a little uncomfortable in my blouse – I don’t want to pop a button. I try again with a set of 10. My biceps and triceps feel as though they’ve woken up, and I’m not flustered.
“Celebrate the wins,” Aldir says. “Give yourself credit for using that time.”
6. Modified farmers’ carry
“We don’t lift our arms up enough in modern life, so our shoulders are at risk of getting stiff,” Sherrington says. “Just lifting up the arms is better than nothing.”
Rafael suggests using whatever you have on hand to do some load-bearing arm exercises. Standing tall with your core engaged, draw your shoulder blades back to engage your mid back, then, pick up a heavy object such as a parcel or backpack with both hands at arm’s length for 10 to 15 seconds. “Do this without flinging the arms quickly or arching your spine to cheat with your lower back muscles,” she says. Slowly lower the object and breathe evenly. Repeat.
“A small child is an excellent weight,” says Gomersall, which is lucky for me as I only remember to do this when I’m at home with my two-year-old. After lifting his 15kg weight to hip height, my arms straighten as much as I can muster, and I hold him for, at a push, five seconds. He’s thrilled – “more, more” – but I don’t have a second rep in me.
7. Leg marches
Leg marches are self-explanatory but it’s important to start slow and steady and focus on your balance, according to Rafael. “Standing tall, pick up one leg, bring the knee to hip height while balancing on the other. Switch legs and repeat.
“If you can make them nice and big – bringing them up to your tummy – without losing balance, then you will feel it more in the core,” she says. “If you’re going for a smaller movement, aim for a tabletop leg, with the knee in line with the hip.”
It would feel too Monty Python to do this in public, so standing in the kitchen at home I clock up to 60 leg marches while waiting for the microwave to heat my lunch. I feel it in my hips and thighs but particularly my tight hip flexors. Minutes later, I do 40 more. It’s sort of addictive. I can feel my pulse rise, I’m energised. As though I’ve climbed to the top of a habit stack.
8. Lateral flexion
Standing next to a wall, make yourself into a banana shape by crossing one ankle over the other and then leaning towards the wall with your upper body and arms, suggests Rafael. “Anything that involves a little bit of length to the torso, or that involves a stretch element or a dynamic bit of mobility is always great,” she says.
She’s right – a banana shape does feel good. My neck muscles stretch and my hips loosen a little. It feels good, especially for my iliotibial band.
9. Squats
If you could only do one exercise, Aldir says, “Ten very controlled, maximum-depth body weight squats would be my choice.” Stand with your feet hip-width apart with toes pointing forward. Hinge your hips and sit back. Keep your chest up and your back straight. Squat as deeply as you can.
I skip this one the day I wear a skirt – but I manage 50 squats during a video meeting, camera off, while wearing looser pants. I’m out of breath and my brow is glistening.
“We have a large number of big muscles in the legs … and they require more energy, so you’re going to get more bang for your buck with squatting,” Aldir says. The wide range of motion helps “open up the hips and get your lower back and glutes stretching when we get to that bottom position” too.
Want to make it more challenging? “You might be able to stand on one leg and then squat down,” Sherrington says.
10. Walk at your desk
“People think they need to carve out one to two hours a day to go to the gym and get on the treadmill, but it doesn’t matter whether you run for an hour or you’re walking incredibly slow throughout the day,” says Jamie Montalto, owner of Melbourne’s Jamie Fitness. He used to clock up to 20,000 steps a day as a personal trainer but since hiring a team he has been desk-bound.
He bought a walking pad, which he uses on the lowest setting for one-hour blocks – or until he feels uncomfortable. “Your head bobs while you’re walking … but you get used to it,” he says. “It’s the best hack ever, even just for myself.”
Work your way up
Each week we should aim for either one and a quarter hours of vigorous physical activity – where “you’re huffing and puffing really hard”, Gomersall says – or a minimum of two-and-a-half hours of moderate physical activity, “where you can talk, but you can’t sing”. The Australian government’s physical activity guidelines also advise muscle-strengthening activities such as squats and push-ups at least twice a week.
Walking meetings, active commutes and taking the stairs can all help build movement into the day, but Sherrington says to meet the guidelines they “may not be enough”.
“We’re saying something is better than nothing, but then more is actually better as well.”
That being said, “Going from zero to 100 is where we tend to see injuries develop”, Gomersall says. “Find little things you can do and gradually increase them in a way that’s sustainable for you. It’s important to go at your own pace.”
