Industrial gymnastics for office workers: a set of exercises

Most people today lead a passive, sedentary lifestyle. Office workers who need to be constantly at their desks, from morning to late evening, especially suffer from this. This never goes away without a trace for the body. Over time, in the absence of physical activity, a person’s general condition worsens, and some unpleasant diseases may even occur.

Back in the era of the Soviet Union, special industrial gymnastics was created for office workers - a set of exercises performed by employees of firms and companies every day at a certain time. If you are constantly at your desk, it is worth including it in your work schedule. Just a few minutes, but the benefits for the body are enormous.

What is industrial gymnastics

Modern man spends most of his life sitting. Office workers who are at their workplace full time, sitting at a computer, are particularly at risk. It is worth understanding that a sedentary lifestyle will sooner or later affect your well-being.

During the USSR, special industrial gymnastics were developed for workers. All workers were required to strictly complete all exercises within the allotted time. Currently, there is no such practice in enterprises. However, you yourself can take care of your health and do special exercises while performing your work duties.

Industrial gymnastics is a set of several exercises that employees should do while at their workplace to maintain health and improve performance.

The main purpose of industrial gymnastics

Today, regulations have been developed according to which every employer is obliged to provide employees with special working conditions. In case of violation, both disciplinary and criminal penalties may be applied. Each enterprise must develop its own methodology for conducting a special set of health-improving exercises.

Thanks to gymnastics, every employee can not only strengthen their immune system, but also significantly increase their performance. The whole secret is that a person’s performance improves if he is physically prepared.

Objectives of industrial gymnastics:

• Performance support;
• Preparing the employee for the work process;
• Preparation for a specific type of activity;
• Maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Benefits of gymnastics during working hours:

• Getting energy for the whole working day;
• Effective completion of assigned tasks;
• Reducing emotional stress;
• Keeping the body in good shape.

In order not to get tired at work and after work, you need to do a set of simple exercises, just 5-10 minutes. The most important thing is that you don’t need any special equipment or simulators for industrial exercises.

Exercise for the eyes

If you spend most of your working day at the computer or reading/writing papers, this can lead to vision problems. When the eyes become overtired, the letters on the monitor or paper begin to double, pain and burning occurs in the eyes, they water and turn red. Even if the monitor is positioned correctly relative to the eyes and there is good lighting, the eyes simply need to take breaks from working.

So you should:

• periodically (every 60-120 minutes) switch vision from close to far - just look into the distance for 5-7 minutes;
• close your eyes as much as possible, then open your eyes wide; repeat 10 times;
• move your eyes up/down, left/right, rotate them clockwise and counterclockwise; repeat each movement 10 times;
• bring your eyes to your nose (try to look at your own bridge of the nose), relax your eyes; repeat 10 times.

By the end of the working day, most people who work continuously at a computer begin to feel pain and dryness in their eyes, and swelling of the eyelids appears. To avoid this, take breaks from work for 5-10 minutes. It is useful to do strengthening training for the eyes once a day. It consists of the following actions:

1. make 10-15 movements to the right and left with the apples of your eyes;
2. rotate first in one direction and then in the other 6-10 times;
3. look a little into the distance, then at an object nearby for 8 times;
4. close your eyes tightly and open your eyes sharply 5 times;
5. look at your index finger in front of your nose 12 times.

These simple exercises will reduce visual fatigue and you will feel better at the end of the day.

Which workers is it suitable for?

First of all, gymnastics during working hours is necessary for the so-called “white collar” workers or mental workers who sit at their workplace all day long. Such employees can spend the whole day at the computer without interrupting for a lunch break or rest.

Among such workaholics are:

• banking employees;
• secretaries;
• programmers;
• engineers;
• translators;
• copywriters.

The organization of labor gymnastics identifies the following groups of workers who need exercises during the working day:

1. Professions that are subject to the greatest stress and nervous tension. As a rule, this group of people every day, while at their workplace, is forced to perform the same type of work that requires attention and vision. Among these professions it is worth noting:

• workers at machines;
• seamstresses;
• shoe factory employees;
• assemblers of small mechanisms.

1. The second group included those specialties in which there is little physical and mental activity. As a rule, this is doing work with small movements:

• turners;
• milling operators;
• pickers.

1. The third group includes professions that are characterized by great physical stress:

• miners;
• construction workers;
• molders.

1. The last group is all professions that involve mental work. Such employees are constantly under mental stress:

• employees of medical institutions;
• engineers;
• teachers.

Working in “machine mode” will sooner or later lead to the development of cardiovascular diseases, deterioration of vision, back pain and other diseases. To prevent this from happening, you need to take care of yourself and know the basics of physical education.

Exercise 9 Making sculpted abs

Press your elbows close to your body and place your palms on the underside of the tabletop. In the same mode – 5-7 seconds of tension and relaxation – try to seem to “lift” the table. This exercise strengthens your biceps. You need to do it “conscientiously”, until you feel a burning sensation.

It's unlikely that you have the opportunity to lie down on the office carpet and elegantly perform a couple of sets of crunches. So sit on a chair. Straighten your back, straighten your shoulders and tighten your buttocks a little. Take a deep breath and as you exhale, draw in your stomach as much as you can. Perform at least 50 such retractions. The exercise should be performed precisely by tensing the abdominal muscles. Make sure that the diaphragm does not rise at all. It is very important to inhale and exhale rhythmically, so do not hold your breath.

While sitting, place your hands slightly behind you, palms forward. Bring your knees together. As you exhale, raise your bent legs slightly, remembering to keep your back straight. Do at least 30 approaches.

All exercises can be performed both together and separately. It is best to do them every day, alternating the load on different muscle groups. After your workout, drink water and, if possible, stretch the muscles you worked.

The entire workout takes no more than 20 minutes. It’s not at all difficult to free up this time to take care of your own health!

This part of the body is the main working organ of a person. It is through our hands that we receive most information from the environment and come into contact with it. While working in the office, due to constantly being in the same position, they can become stiff and painful. In order to prevent all this, you need to exercise:

• take yourself by the left wrist and twist your palm, first in one direction, then in the other;
• quickly clench and unclench your fingers 10-15 times, then clench your hand tightly into a fist, hold for about 3-4 seconds and relax;
• You can do a small massage of each finger with hand cream for 10 minutes.

Blood circulation in the limbs is activated and fatigue disappears. Gymnastics is a good prevention of the occurrence of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Fact of the day (for those who are not yet aware) - it turns out that in order to pump up your abs, you don’t have to lie on the floor. Abdominal exercises in the office can be done directly on a chair.

Sit up straight and tighten your gluteal muscles. Take a deep breath. Now sharply draw in your stomach as you exhale. Repeat the exercise 40-50 times.

If you want to pump up your oblique abdominal muscles, no question. Bend to the side in your chair.

If you set out to pump up your abs right at your workplace, you can choose more difficult exercises.

Raising your knees to the table. Straighten your back and place your hands on the table. As you exhale, raise your legs so that they press on the bottom of the table. As you inhale, lower it. Repeat 10-15 times.

Raising your knees to your chest. Move away from the back of the chair, spread your feet shoulder-width apart. As you inhale, lift one knee to your chest and hold in this position for 3-5 seconds. As you exhale, lower your knee. Change your leg. Do 15-20 repetitions.

Forms (types) of industrial gymnastics

If we talk about forms of gymnastics, then we can distinguish 4 main types. Let's look at each in more detail.

1. Micropause.

This form of gymnastics is accessible to absolutely everyone. Usually this is a release of muscle tension or a regular self-massage. A few minutes is enough for a micropause.

The simplest example is kneading your back if you sit on a chair for a long time. To warm up, you simply push back and stretch. Or you can raise your arms up and stretch back to “stretch” your back.

1. Introductory gymnastics.

Perhaps the best start to a working day is morning exercises. Exercises can be done before starting the work process. All exercises are quite simple and last no more than 5 minutes. It is enough to perform 5-7 exercises to get maximum results.

Employees who come to work after such exercise are cheerful and full of energy, while others try to cheer themselves up with a cup of coffee. If possible, sign up for the pool and visit it before or after work.

1. Physical education break.

This form of industrial exercise is needed to quickly relieve tension during the working day. As a rule, this is a simple exercise that takes no more than a minute to complete. If you have a standard 8-hour work day, you can stretch every hour. In this case, exercises can be constantly alternated.

1. Physical education minute.

During the physical education minute, you need to get up from your chair and do small exercises, so to speak, “stretch your body.” As a rule, these can be normal inclinations. You can warm up by bending in different directions every hour.

Micropause is a quick way to relieve tension

Sometimes you need to quickly relieve stress or urgently switch to another activity. This often happens when you do the same type of work for too long. You may experience cramps, joint pain, or just tired eyes. In this case, a micropause comes to the rescue. This type of industrial gymnastics takes no more than one or two minutes. It's enough to just stretch your stiff muscles or shake yourself a little. There can be any number of such pauses throughout the day. Sometimes just getting up and walking around your office is enough to allow you to shift your attention away from your work process and then return to it with a fresh look.

Industrial gymnastics for office workers

The number of office employees is increasing every year. It is worth noting that the main problem that many office workers face is spinal disease, the well-known osteochondrosis.

Regular industrial exercises can prevent the occurrence of diseases such as:

• haemorrhoids;
• prostatitis;
• obesity;
• gastritis;
• joint diseases;
• back and neck diseases.

To avoid this, every employee should think about their health and during the work process not only take the correct posture, but also take healthy breaks.

All exercises are quite simple and do not require special physical training.

A few minutes of industrial gymnastics will help improve:

• blood flow;
• metabolic processes in the body;
• well-being;
• mood;
• performance.

As practice shows, an employee who is in good mood and physical shape is able to do his job better and achieve greater success.

What are the benefits of exercising at work?

Taking an exercise break at work is an effective tool for promoting a healthy lifestyle. We must not forget that all joint events always united the team. How can such gymnastics be useful in the workplace and what are its advantages?

It doesn't take much time. You can perform individual exercises for just a few minutes and for a separate part of the body. Depending on the specifics of the work, you can select only those parts of the body that receive the maximum load: neck, back, legs, eyes.

As a rule, such exercises are easy to perform and do not require special sports equipment.

Since the exercises are easy to perform, you don’t need to spend a lot of effort and energy on them, you don’t need to change into sportswear and go to the shower after exercising.

Joint exercise improves mood and promotes better communication and atmosphere between colleagues and in the team as a whole.

And most importantly, it reduces the risk of diseases, including occupational ones.

There are also benefits from a health perspective.

During charging, the position of the body and the part on which the load falls most during operation changes.

Blood circulation and joint mobility are restored.

The muscles are strengthened and tension in them is relieved.

Carrying out the same type of work gradually leads to the accumulation of stress, which is easily relieved by performing work gymnastics.

As you can see, there are enough advantages to think about it and start setting aside 15-20 minutes to perform a set of exercises without leaving your workplace.

Exercises for industrial gymnastics

Industrial gymnastics includes a large set of exercises. Your task is to choose the most suitable ones for yourself or create a set of gymnastic exercises.

If you feel unwell during or after the exercise, you should reduce the number of repetitions or refuse altogether and consult a doctor.

A set of exercises that can be performed without getting up from your chair:

• Sit on a chair, while pressing tightly against the back. Stretch your legs forward and raise your arms up. At the same time, stretch your arms upward. As you stretch, count to 10 and return to your normal position. Doing it 10 times is enough to warm up.
• If you have a ball handy, you can do the following exercises to relieve tension. Sit on a chair and hold a regular children's ball between your knees. Straighten your back and squeeze the ball as hard as possible. It takes as long to do it as long as you can hold the ball yourself.
• You can do this exercise while sitting at a table. Just rest your hands on the table and sit on the edge of the chair. Raise your buttocks for a few seconds and lower yourself. It may be difficult at first, so do it 5-10 times. Afterwards you can increase it up to 20 times.
• As a rule, office employees sit on familiar chairs, on wheels with armrests. To relax a little, you can sit on the edge of a chair, keeping your back straight and clasping your arms around the armrests. All you need to do is strain your arm muscles and try to squeeze the armrest as tightly as possible. It is enough to do up to 15 repetitions.

Warm-up that can be done next to a chair:

• You need to stand next to a chair and put your hands on the back. First, take your left leg back and stretch a little, then your right. You can make the exercise a little more difficult and move your arms to the sides while stretching. The exercise should be repeated up to 10 times for each leg.
• While behind a chair, place your hands on the back. Take your right leg back and stretch it a little, while at the same time pull your left arm up. Then vice versa. Repeats should be done up to 10 times.
• Stand behind a chair, place your hands on the back. All you need to do is stand on your toes and count to 10, then lower yourself. You need to do repetitions 15-20 times. If possible, remove your shoes to allow your feet to fully warm up.

Exercises without support

You don't need to have a chair handy to do the warm-up.

To reduce the load, you can do a few simple exercises:

• Regular bends. You just need to stand up straight and bend in different directions. For the exercise, you can use your arms and lift them up or move them apart.
• To reduce the load on your back, you need to stand up straight and raise your arms up. In this position, stretch up, stand on your toes as high as possible and pull your toes up. Remain in this state for 10 seconds. To achieve a positive result, do the exercise 10 times.
• Walking in place is a great exercise. You need to walk in place for 5-7 minutes.
• And, of course, don’t forget about regular squats. It is necessary to do 15-20 squats during exercise. To achieve a positive result, do not forget to connect your arms while squatting and move them forward.

Exercise for the eyes

As already mentioned, many people sit at the computer all day, reading books, typing material, or checking important papers. Work is good, but you need to take care of your eyes. Even if you do work wearing special glasses, you need to do special exercises for your eyes.

A set of exercises for the eyes:

• Close your eyes and squeeze them as tightly as possible for literally 5-10 seconds. After that, open it wide. You can do up to 10 repetitions.
• To rest your eyes, you need to switch your vision from close to far every few hours. It's very easy to do. All you need to do is just go to the window and try to look into the distance and focus your gaze on a specific object. For example, in the distance there is an ancient building with a small antenna on the roof. Try to direct all your attention to her. Or choose a point in the distance and look at it for 5-7 minutes.
• Well, the last exercise you can do. Just try to look at the bridge of your nose. Repeat can be done up to 7-10 times.
• If possible, purchase special glasses for charging your eyes (with holes). To give your eyes a rest, you need to put on the glasses for 5-10 minutes and continue working with them.

Exercise 2 For the inner thigh

Sit on the edge of a chair and place your feet together, pressing your knees together.
The back must be straight. Alternately straighten your left and right knees, pulling your toes towards you. Perform the exercise until a slight burning sensation occurs in the muscles. If this exercise is too easy for you, straighten both legs at once, remembering to keep your knees together. This option also allows you to use your abdominal and back muscles.

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To work them out, it’s very good to use a small inflatable ball. Simply hold it between your knees and squeeze your legs rhythmically until your muscles become tired. If you don’t have a ball at hand, any office stationery item, even a regular pencil, will do as resistance.

This is where stubborn “breeches” are formed. While sitting, press your knees together. Place your hands on the chair on both sides, at mid-thigh level. Overcoming the resistance of your hands, press on them, straining your muscles with all your might for 5–7 seconds, then relax. Repeat at least 20 times.

Place your feet shoulder-width apart under the table. If you are wearing high heels, it is better to take them off. Remember to straighten your back and tighten your abdominal muscles. Alternately press the heel of your right and left legs into the floor, holding the tension for 5-7 seconds. Repeat the exercise 10 times with each leg.

What to pay attention to before doing gymnastics

Few people know, but you need to prepare for industrial gymnastics.

Here are a few tips to take into account:

• Before starting a set of exercises, the room should be well ventilated. It is enough to open the windows for a few minutes.
• Always monitor not only the room temperature, but also the humidity. In the summer, many employees abuse the air conditioning, which leads to cooling of the body. Remember, the room temperature should not be less than 15 and more than 25. As for humidity, no more than 70% for normal operation.
• You need to perform the exercises in comfortable clothes and shoes. If you are an office employee, then the dress code will not allow you to come to your workplace in sneakers and sweatpants. However, you can wear a tracksuit with you or remove your jacket and heels during exercise. Nothing should restrict your movements.
• You can perform a set of exercises to music. It is best to use classical music, which will help not only to distract and relax, but also to correctly perform the entire range of necessary exercises.
• In the first half of the day, you should avoid intense exercise, as it promotes active sweating.
• Avoid snacking or eating heavily before exercising. After performing gymnastics, you can drink a glass of still water. It is better to avoid a cup of tea or coffee.

Useful tips

Industrial gymnastics, if performed regularly, will bring a lot of benefits to employees who are forced to spend all their working time in a sitting position.

However, you need to try to make as many movements as possible, which, at first glance, may seem quite ordinary.

• Get up from your chair at least once an hour. Thanks to this simple advice, you can avoid the appearance of congestion in the lower extremities and improve blood circulation. Make it a rule to talk on your mobile phone not while sitting, but while standing, while walking.
• Whenever possible, you need to get out into the fresh air, at least for a couple of minutes. No air conditioner, even the most modern one, can replace the invigorating effect of fresh air.
• Any pause in the work process (lack of Internet, downloading a program, etc.) should be used with maximum benefit for yourself. It is best not to communicate on social networks with friends at this time, but to stretch a little near your workplace.
• At every opportunity, you should try to get up from your workplace and move. For example, take papers to the next department, refuse the elevator in favor of walking up the stairs, just walk along the office or corridor, go to a nearby cafe during lunch break.
• Introduce a rule such as visiting the gym or swimming pool at least a couple of times a week. Only in this case, no “occupational” diseases will be scary, but good health and an excellent figure will be guaranteed!