How to Fit Exercise into a Busy Schedule

"I don't have the time to exercise, I'm too busy"

Does this sound like you? Getting the time for exercise is next to impossible, some say. Where do you find an extra hour a day? If you look at exercise this way, chances are you won't find the time, but think differently.

"The question is not how to fit exercise into my busy schedule, BUT How can I make exercise part of my routine?"

Routine is important, its habit, it's sustainable, it's the comfort zone. Schedules infer lack of choice, time boxed activities, it's the obligation zone. If you have kids you'll know how important routines are; Your child needs a routine for comfort and you change your schedule around to suit THEM! Making sense? Hope so, (especially to parents!!) but what can you do to implement this missing aspect?


The very simplest way of doing this is to take the stairs, not the elevator or escalator. If you work in London, or another major city, you'll probably find taking the stairs is quicker than the queue for the escalator anyway! (Well, probably not at first, but you'll get there!).


That's not going to get you all the way to 60 minutes a day though, although it'll be the right intensity. Here's a tip, take a diary (journal) of all the "free" screen time you have. Be it playing video games, surfing the web, listening to songs on YouTube, checking your Facebook or reading Blogs. Is there any pattern? Chances are there is, and after a few weeks you should have an hour a day (including weekends), so let's use this.


I'm not suggesting you forgo your leisure time in favor of going to the gym or out running, that's changing your schedule, and that's a bad tactic. What I'm looking for you to do is change your routine - instead of having this time as sedentary, making the behavior change to Active Screen Time (AST).


If you spend a lot of time on the computer or internet, use the Gamercize PC-Sport to make this active time. Studies indicate this will improve your BMI and health with a more efficient cardio vascular system, i.e. you'll be fitter. If you play a lot of video games, change that journalled sedentary time with Gamercize Pro-Sport for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. We're not suggesting you change the game to a tedious exercise game, keep playing what YOU want to, Gamercize works online, offline with the games people play for entertainment.

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Brain Training by Physical Exercise

Gamercize PC-Sport demonstrated live on BBC TV by health expert.

The question was raised today if employers have a responsibility of their employees health during the workday and this addressed by health expert, Jim McKenna.

What can employers expect by providing exercise at the desk? Increased productivity, less sick days and long term health. That's not a bad deal.

"Our data is quite conclusive... A day when I exercise versus a day when I don't, on average, I'll say that I am 17% more effective in my work." Jim McKenna, Professor of Physical Activity and Health, Leeds Metropolitan University told the BBC presenter of the Sunday Life programme.

He also added that by using exercise at work studies have proved that employees can burn enough energy to lose up to 20kg (44lbs) in weight in one healthy working year!

The Gamercize PC-Sport takes up less space than a desk footrest and was quiet and didn't leave Professor McKenna out of breath while chatting about the wider benefits of physical activity in the workplace.

For the more adventurous there is a treadmill desk, made by another company, that takes up quite a bit of space and costs 20 times the Gamercize option.

The programme will be available to watch on BBC's iPlayer shortly.

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How to Get Facebook at Work

Social Networking Flexes its Muscles

You used to be able to access social networking sites like Facebook from your work PC but now it has been taken away. Why? How can you possibly arrange the weekend without it? How can you check what photos you have been tagged in from last weekend?

Facebook is, according to the web information company Alexa, the most popular social networking site having overtaken MySpace last month. It also joins the list of sites companies prefer not to have workers using. Reasons for blocking sites vary from the concerns about network traffic, issues around data security down to the slightly more honest “you are here to work not browse”. I know of one company that has even blocked news sites including the BBC.

While I do agree that during working hours the need for access to such sites has very little credibility, there is no compelling reason to block access which also includes lunch hours. After all, your unpaid time at lunch has been compromised by the location of your work. You can’t exercise free choice in what you do, and if you live more than half an hour from home you wouldn’t even be able to check your Facebook page.



So how do you get your Facebook access at work? The answer came in a month or so ago with an email to Gamercize customer services, which found its way to my desk. The email was from an employee of a large corporation that had banned Facebook and was located out of town in a remote commercial zone. The disappointed worker had been keeping in touch with friends not by company telephone or company email, but by Facebook. He asked if we could contact his boss with an idea.

That is exactly what I did, putting forward his idea to use a couple of PCs, due for replacement, to be moved into the canteen and put on the internet. The justification for having these machines was given by having them connected with the Gamercize PC-Sport Stepper, helping the company provide exercise in the workplace. The two “Internet Café” machines, as they have been called, have been in for a week now and proved very popular.

Happy employees get to use the internet in their free time, without losing the opportunity for lunchtime exercise. The corporation is happy that they can provide this service to their employees and can start to address work health targets. Now all that remains if for those employees to fan the Gamercize Facebook page!

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Office Desk Exercise in Practice

Energise your Workplace

One Gamercize product doesn’t involve games at all, the GZ PC-Sport is an under desk exercise stepper that connects to a PC keyboard or mouse. The patented Gamercize technology is still there, requiring exercise to keep the input device working and pausing the input as a gentle reminder to keep moving if you stop.

Taking the lead from a surprisingly large number of our corporate customers and the responsibility to provide corporate wellness, I decided to roll them out to everyone in the office. To start with I asked everyone to try it for one week. After that week they had to decide if they wanted to keep it or give it back.

The thought of getting exercise at work appealed to some as a great time saver but for others it looked like it would be too hard to do. Everyone found a time or a task that suited them to exercise at work. At the end of the week, not one person took the option of having the exercise equipment removed from under their desk. Convenience was key, the option to exercise is right at your feet the whole time!

With the first week hurdle overcome, the real test would be the three month mark. Why three? It’s the limit for most people before they hide away regular fitness equipment never to be used again or give up the gym from a resolute January start. The gaming versions of Gamercize easily pass the three month test and well beyond, but would the same be true for the PC version?

We didn’t quite make 100%, as one person decided to give it a miss after a few weeks. But for everyone else, three months on, they’re all still using it, including me. From my observation everyone seems to be working better than before and there has been a noticeable drop in the number of days off sick. Things have really started buzzing around here, there’s definitely more energy around the place, every one's happier and the work is getting done faster!

I would recommend making your office and active office. The benefits to everyone are obviously visible. There are other options for an active office other than using Gamercize, but they come with some warnings to other office bosses; setting up a multitude of cardio machines in a dedicated office gym is very expensive and off-site activities can see lunch hours taking much more than the single hour. Whilst helping the wellness of your employees, you should factor in these costs if choosing a solution other than the Gamercize PC-Sport.

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Advanced Deskercise for Workers

Lunchtime Exercise Without the Rain
There have been a few stories in the news about fitness at work recently. Latest advice calls for an exercise hour for all workers.

The advice by experts is often seen as enforcement or unhelpful, but it is not intended to be. The main theme of all the advice is a well meaning message for everyone to get some extra exercise, it's good for you. The struggle is putting the message across in a meaningful way we can all relate to and apply to our own lives, if we choose.

An exercise hour is normally quite easy at work, at lunchtime go out for a walk or play a game of squash or football. It is often easier to arrange sporting activity in your free daylight hour with co-workers, than after a hard days work with chores, family responsibilities and dark evenings.

These pictures show what we have been doing to get more exercise. Typically we spend a lot of time sat at a computer. Working mostly, but some times browsing the web, playing games or posting to blogs. The interesting and enjoyable uses of our computers makes the time fly by. Lunch hours always seem so short, and an hour in the afternoon drags on. If we decide to have an exercise hour, then which hour is it best to use for exercise? The one that flies by is the smart choice, so you don't notice the effort.

The step exercise machine under the desk works well for the cold, rainy weather that is fast approaching. A far better choice than an under desk mini cycle, which tends to be very hard to use with wheeled chairs or low desks! Gamercize lends a hand, when switched into trainer mode, the input to the computer is paused if you stop moving. This is useful when you consider using the computer for enjoyable purposes will take you mind off exercise, and in fact so much so that most people forget to exercise!

As you are sitting there, browsing the web during your lunch hour reading this post, think about how much exercise you get at weekends. Then think about how much exercise you get during the working week. Chances are, if you work in an office, there is a bit more you can do, and maybe an exercise hour might be worth a try for a few weeks?

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