Get up, stand up!

You get up in the morning. You’re in a hurry, so you take a bus to school. In school you sit the whole day listening lectures. At breaks you stay in class with your school mates and talk about the upcoming weekend. After school you go home and start to work on you assignments in front of the computer. In the evening your head and neck hurts and your whole body feels jammed. You feel exhausted and don’t feel doing anything else but watching TV and Facebooking. Sounds familiar?

For me it does. Although my title is tutor and sports secretary, the “sports” doesn’t really show in everyday life. Mostly my work is sitting in front of the computer or in meetings. This wasn’t the case a year ago. Before I started working in JAMKO, I worked in kindergarten with 3 to 5 year-old kids. I can tell you there wasn’t much sitting in there. I was used to being on the move all the time, so at first it was odd for me to just sit. In my first weeks I had some exercise breaks but soon I noticed I had adapted to my new working mode and was sitting 8 hours a day.

When I participated to a seminar arranged by Finnish Student Sports Federation (OLL) I noticed how much It increases your work efficiency to stand up for a couple of minutes and do some stretching. Although fitness and being in good shape is very trendy nowadays, there is also a lot more discussion about being active in everyday life and exercising enough to keep your mind and body healthy. In the article by Daily Mail it is said that the lack of exercise is more dangerous for health than obesity. Even a small amount of physical activity every day could have substantial health benefits for people who are not physically active. So it’s not about running 10 kilometers every day: it’s about making little choices that help.

So here are few tips to increase your activity everyday:

• Use stairs over elevators
• If it’s possible, walk or cycle to school or work. If the distance is long, you can walk some of the way and then take a bus. If you drive by car to school, you can park it a little farther and walk the rest of the way.
• Stand up for a few minutes after every hour you have been sitting. Do some stretching and roll your shoulders.
• When you have a lunch of coffee break, don’t stay in the class. Go for a little walk and take your classmates with you. If you have to go the toilet or pick up a cup of coffee, you don’t have to choose the nearest restroom of cafeteria.
• Find ways to have fun with your friends while doing some exercising. Some like to go for a walk and talk, for some it’s bowling or playing billiard. Whichever is good for you!
• If you want to be very devoted, get yourself an activity wristband. It tells you how much you have to walk or jog to fill your activity need for the day. Christmas is coming, maybe you can make a wish for Santa? 😉

Hope you all have a great and active rest of the fall!

Karoliina
Tutor and Sports Secretary