TIP 9# Set a reminder to move every hour. Well I tell you, I am officially sick of my alarm. I actually caught myself humming along to the tune of bells reminding me to get up.

As this weeks GIF shows, theres many ways to move more throughout the day. You don’t necessarily need to deadlift weights every hour, but the possibilities are endless. You could walk around the office and check in on co-workers, you could do squats right there at your desk, go for a short walk, stretch, grab a snack, anything that gets you out of a chair.

So, by the middle of the week I had well and truly grown so accustomed to my alarm that it wasn’t so alarming anymore. Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting you wake up every hour to go for a walk, but when you’re working for long periods of time hunched at a desk, that’s when you need it most. I became aware of just how long I was spending at my desk. Which in turn made me quite self-righteous.

‘Did you know I spent four hours on this powerpoint?’ 

It was fun until my modesty caught up with me. But without the alarm, I’m not sure I would have got up at all. Staring at the screen tends to slow down the brain, so a five minute refresh really helped. At university this week, I spent a day lifedrawing. The model takes regular breaks to stretch from posing for long periods of time, and she asked me if my arm ached yet. It took me by surprise, but it was true. Even though I was moving my arm and hand to sketch, I wasn’t moving just as much as someone who is paid to stand still!

So lesson learnt this week,

Don’t sit still for extending periods… unless you’re a life model.

Set regular breaks, get up and move more.