Our bodies are still the same no matter if we go to the office or work from anywhere. But when our environments change we need to adapt our approach to health and fitness.
Let’s look at the key differences between the classical fitness approach and a smart training approach for remote workers and digital nomads.
Routine
Gym vs. Exercise Snacks
Going to the gym on your way home from the office is the best strategy to ensure you go.
It can be more challenging to structure your training sessions but by creating a space for them and prioritizing them they can be integrated even easier than before.
Also, we have the freedom to fill our workday with movement and exercise snacks. Staying in motion during the day is the best way to stay painfree and lean.
Strength Training
Weights vs. Suspension Training
But if you don’t go to the gym, do you need to buy a ton of weights? And then carry them around on your travels?
No, becoming independent from the gym also means mastering bodyweight training so you never need more than a towel to exercise.
Just because you don’t need it doesn’t mean you can’t use equipment to make your fitness activities more fun or easier to manage.
Getting a suspension trainer replaces the towel as something to pull against but also gives you endless workout opportunities that you would need a little bit of creativity for otherwise.
Diet
Lunchbreaks vs. Eating on Demand
For some goals, it is beneficial to have fixed eating times.
But for most of us, it is better to eat when we are hungry and also have some flexibility and spontaneity in our food choices.
Going out for lunch every day or bringing your food to the office is unnecessarily restricting and also not as healthy as preparing your own food in your living space.
Mobility
Yoga Class vs. Floor Work
One thing that would have been weird in the office but you can easily start doing at home is to work on the floor.
Get a small table or floor desk and begin to spend time sitting on the ground.
If you think that might be uncomfortable after a little bit, you are completely right and this is the point.
No matter what position you are in on the floor, after a few minutes you will feel like you have to change it. The discomfort is a free-movement reminder.
Once you explore a few basic positions, you will find yourself in an effortless movement flow, that just happens while you work, without you needing to take your hands off the keyboard.
Spent at least an hour a day on the floor, add a few more difficult poses to your repertoire over time and you can skip yoga class.
Moving through your floor positions gives you all the mobility practice you need.
Different does not automatically mean better.
You have to shape the newly won freedom so that your health and fitness can get the attention they deserve.
