The benefits of physical activity are well recognised, but it’s not always easy to find time to work out during business hours.

Some workers in China are doing their utmost to break the sedentary lifestyle that comes with office life by improvising mini-workout sessions between meetings.

This practice has been gaining ground in China since a photo was posted in early July (2024) on the popular Xiaohongshu platform, according to the South China Morning Post.

The picture shows a woman flexing her biceps, with the help of a heavy tote bag and a plastic bag containing a takeaway meal, while she waits for the elevator.

“Office workers have their own gym,” the caption reads.

China’s social networks are brimming with testimonials from employees who are improvising little exercise sessions during their working day.

Some run to their company premises, while others use their office chairs to do Pilates exercises.

Everyone has their own solution to help them get moving more, and above all, maintaining their health.

While the benefits of exercise are well documented, many workers in China complain that they don’t have the time for regular physical activity.

This is due to the “996” system, which involves working from 9am to 9pm, six days a week.

In other words, they work 72-hour weeks, even though Chinese law stipulates that the working week must not exceed 40 hours.

This unbearable pace encourages a lack of physical activity and a sedentary lifestyle.

Short workout sessions in the workplace are a good way to reverse this trend.

After all, it’s a proven fact that all physical activity contributes to staying in better shape for longer, even if a certain amount of more vigorous exercise – in terms of duration and intensity – is needed to compensate for the harmful effects of a sedentary lifestyle.

But that’s not the only advantage of exercise: it also helps reduce stress and increase productivity.

Research from 2015, carried out by the Paris-based Goodwill management consultancy at the request of the Movement of the Enterprises of France (Medef, the largest employer federation in France) and the National Olympic Committee of France, maintains that a sedentary employee who takes up a physical and sporting activity improves their productivity by 6% to 9%.

In this context, companies would do well to allow their employees to get some exercise in the workplace.

But only a handful of companies have actually implemented such measures.

In the meantime, health-conscious employees can make small changes to adopt a more active lifestyle without too much effort, exercising whenever they have five minutes to spare at the coffee machine or elsewhere. – AFP Relaxnews

Editor’s note: Dana Santas, known as the “Mobility Maker,” is a certified strength and conditioning specialist and mind-body coach in professional sports, and is the author of the book “Practical Solutions for Back Pain Relief.”

CNN
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Whether you’re a former athlete looking to get back into summer sports or someone just wanting to participate in the family kickball game, you don’t want to deal with an aching back for weeks afterward. Never mind the shame of not being able to hold your own in front of friends and family.

To help everyone get back into seasonal recreational activities safely and effectively, I enlisted four good friends and coaching colleagues from professional sports for expert insights and practical tips to stay active, perform better and enjoy summer activities injury-free.

Read on to learn how you can unlock your summer sports potential and get back in the game.

Jason Glass, a top performance coach who trains elite athletes on the PGA Tour, emphasizes the importance of daily habits. “Whether you’re a professional athlete or a weekend warrior, you can’t prepare for game day on game day,” he said. “Proper preparation comes from your daily habits.”

Glass recommends creating a daily lifestyle checklist he calls his “Foundational Five”:

Sleep like it’s your job: Quality sleep is essential for recovery and performance. Aim for consistent, restful sleep.

Stay hydrated: Drink half your body weight in fluid ounces per day. For a 200-pound (91-kilogram) athlete, that’s 100 ounces daily.

Eat clean: Know what’s in your food and how it affects your body. This awareness helps you make better choices on game day.

Move beautifully: Engage in an activity every day that makes you feel great, whether it’s yoga or weight lifting. Listen to your body.

Live with intention: Train with specific outcomes in mind. Even napping can be beneficial if done with the intention of resting up before a big game.

Glass advises that you score yourself on each of these five foundations at the end of each day, using a scale of 0 to 5. Aim for 20 or more total points at the end of each day. “Master these five foundations before adding any other performance-enhancing modalities,” he suggested.

Bill Burgos, the former head of strength and conditioning for three NBA teams, offers advice for those returning to sports after a hiatus. “For someone who has not participated in any sporting activity for quite some time, it’s crucial to start safely and effectively,” he noted, not waiting until game day to get going again.

These are Burgos’ three tips:

Prepare your body for movement: Use foam rolling and dynamic stretching exercises such as walking lunges with elbow-to-instep and walking knee hugs to enhance flexibility and mobility.

Gradually elevate your heart rate: Begin with low-intensity activities such as a slow jog and progressively increase to a moderate intensity that mimics your sport.

Listen to your body: Pay attention to how your body feels and adjust the intensity of your workout accordingly.

Maintain strength and speed

Paul Fournier, a strength and conditioning coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers who has worked in Major League Baseball for over 30 years, highlights the importance of strength and speed for longevity and injury prevention. “Maintaining strength and speed of movement is key to preventing chronic pain and injuries,” he asserted.

Fournier recommends incorporating calisthenics, weight training, sprint work and plyometrics into your routine. He suggests starting with twice-weekly sessions that include:

Low-level plyometrics: Jump rope, step-ups and light medicine ball work will build neurological and muscular endurance.

Core strengthening: Perform exercises such as planks, dead bugs and rollouts to enhance torso stability and protect your back.

Strength training: Focus on compound movements for the lower body with exercises such as lunges and squats while incorporating more isolating upper-body exercises like chest presses, rows and curls.

Matt Nichol, a coach with three decades of experience training professional and Olympic athletes, emphasizes the critical role of a proper warm-up. “The warm-up is as important as the workout,” he said.

Nichol offers these practical warm-up tips:

Arrive early: Just like professional athletes who arrive at least three hours early on game days, give yourself extra time before your recreational activity or competition to warm up.

Walk more: Park farther away to incorporate some light movement as you walk to your activity.

Get warm: Avoid stretching cold muscles. Instead, perform sport-specific movements (i.e., running, dribbling, swinging a bat or racquet, etc.) at a lower intensity and gradually increase speed until you’re at game speed.

Listen to your body’s cues: Pay attention to any aches and pains during your warm-up. These can be early warnings of injury potential. It’s better to dial back your intensity for one game than to push too hard and miss the entire season.

As a mobility coach in professional sports for more than 20 years, it has been my job to ensure that athletes can move at their fullest range of motion in the positions of their sport. To that end, I encourage athletes to follow these three strategies:

Have clear goals and a plan to achieve them: Your objectives should align with the needs of your sport and provide direction for your mobility program. For instance, if you want to get back into playing golf, tennis or any other rotational sport, focus on mobility exercises that will improve rotation.

Build strong, powerful movements: Enhanced movement that improves sports performance requires strength and power behind the movement. As Fournier mentioned, core strengthening is essential for stabilizing the low back and preventing injury. Building core strength and stability also provides a foundation for expressing power through spine and limb movements.

Train for controlled movement: Avoid solely relying on stretching to create passive ranges of motion that could lead to injury during activity.

Instead, focus on targeted strength and mobility exercises that promote control in end ranges of motion.

As an example, rather than doing seated toe touches as a passive hamstring stretch, practice single-leg Romanian dead lifts that lengthen and strengthen hamstrings while also promoting stabile and mobile pelvic movement.

Before you jump into the next neighborhood pickup basketball game or sign up for the town softball league, take these practical insights to heart to enhance your performance and reduce your risk of injury.

Sign up for CNN’s Fitness, But Better newsletter series. Our seven-part guide will help you ease into a healthy routine, backed by experts.

The 2024 Paris Olympics are just a few days in, and we’ve already won a gold medal in watching wall-to-wall coverage from the comfort of our couch. Can you blame us? As health and wellness editors, fitness, mental strength and pushing yourself to the limit are topics we cover daily, so it’s only natural that we’re finding inspiration in the incredible athleticism showcased at the Summer Games.

With that in mind, we’ve put together this weekly guide to the events we’re most excited about, the physical and mental benefits for the competitors involved and the takeaways we can all work into our regular exercise routines. (OK, maybe you’re not about to take up synchronized swimming, but a little aqua aerobics never hurt anybody.)

Expect a new update every Monday, and read on to find out simple ways to unleash your inner Olympian.

A bit more about us:

• Erin Donnelly grew up cheering on the Dream Team and fellow Texans like Michael Johnson (and now Simone Biles), but it was attending the London 2012 Games in person that made her a diehard fan for life. Who knew bantamweight boxing could be so exciting?

• As a kid in Southern California, Rachel Grumman Bender would watch Sinjin Smith (who participated in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics — the first time beach volleyball became an official Olympic sport) and his partner Randy Stoklos on TV when they dominated the sport in the 1980s. What’s more satisfying than watching a player jump-spike a volleyball at 70 mph or more?

• Lauren Tuck is a sap who watches the Olympics for the feels. Catch her crying while watching the emotional backstories and commercials (why, Home Depot, why?!), cheering for the underdogs, bawling over injuries and biting her lip during emotional family reunions (Aly Raisman’s parents forever top of mind).

🏉 Root for rugby

Women’s final on July 30

Rugby has been described as the running and endurance of soccer combined with the contact and tackling that’s common in football — but without any helmets or pads (though some argue that leads to safer tackling techniques). The sport has been part of the modern Olympics since 1900, but after the 1924 games, rugby didn’t make an appearance until 92 years later at the 2016 Rio games. The teams competing in this year’s Olympics will be playing rugby sevens, which I learned means there are seven players on each team who compete for 14 minutes (two 7-minute halves), according to the USA Rugby team. It’s so fast-paced that even if a player is tackled on the field, the game doesn’t stop.

Try it: It’s one of the most dangerous sports and traumatic injuries can and do happen, so maybe watch rugby from the safety of your home instead? But don’t just sit there — while you’re watching, try one of the best workouts you can do for those famously strong rugby legs: squats. They’re known as the “king of all exercises” because squats not only strengthen your lower body and stomach muscles, but also improve balance, help with everyday functions like picking up groceries, and help prevent back pain. Here’s how to perform one correctly.

Fun fact: After winning gold in Rio and Tokyo, Fiji’s men’s rugby sevens team was just upset by Olympic hosts France on Saturday. —RGB

🏄 Catch a wave

Surfing gold medal heats on July 30

I’ve been surfing since I was 5 years old and I still struggle with the sport. After catching a few waves, I feel like my arms are Jell-O, my abs have been to battle and my balance has been tested. But beyond the workout, the mood boost from being in the water is incredible — and backed by science!

Try it: Wherever there are waves, there are sure to be lessons and you should consider a surf camp if you’re really invested. There are even wave pools in landlocked places like Waco, Texas, and central California, as well as strength and conditioning classes that are done on boards indoors. For a calmer workout on the water, consider paddle boarding to target similar muscle groups without the incoming big kahunas.

Fun fact: Tahiti is the largest island in French Polynesia and the satellite Olympic Village is a cruise ship. At Teahupo’o, where Olympic events are being held, waves can be “life and death,” according to big-wave surfer Garrett McNamara. —LT

🏊🏃🚴 Try a triathlon

July 30-31, mixed on Aug. 5

The Olympic triathlon is a 1,500-meter swim (close to a mile), a 40 km bike (about 25 miles) and a 10 km run (approximately 6.25 miles), and medalling competitors typically finish the course in under two hours. While most Olympians hone in on becoming the best at one sport, triathletes become experts at three — all the kudos to them! But there are more reasons to compete in triathlons than just bragging rights, Eric Harr, author of Triathlon Training, believes, with the main one being increased mental fitness for rising to such an extreme challenge. Triathlons are also like taking cross-training to an extreme degree, working all parts of the body and muscles in different ways at different times. Done together or separately, open-water swimming, biking and running are all activities to consider taking up.

• Swimming — Dive into the open water like the Olympians (maybe not the Seine, though) and reap major health benefits. A 2023 study published in PLoS One found strong associations between engaging in blue space and mental well-being.

• Biking — A low-impact exercise *when not done at the Olympic level* cycling is easy on the joints, has cardiovascular benefits and can help prevent diabetes.

• Running — Here’s the good news: you don’t have to run a marathon to reap long-distance running rewards. As Business Insider reports, running fast and hard for just five to 10 minutes a day can add years to your life.

Try it: Look up local triathlons in your area! Triathlons come in lots of different sizes. My hometown hosted a mini-triathlon for kids that was a fun community event.

Fun fact: The triathlon is a relatively new sport. The first one was held in the 1980s in San Diego. —LT

👣 Step to it

Women’s and men’s 20 km race walk finals on Aug. 1; marathon mixed relay on Aug. 7

You’ve seen your mom mall walk at a fast clip, but have you seen Olympic-caliber race walking? Though it’s oft-mocked in pop culture, the track and field event has been a serious, and stiff, competition since the 1908 Olympics. Competitors must maintain contact with the ground at all times, and keep their leading leg straightened out as they step. Because of this, it’s easier on the joints than running or jogging, though it also burns fewer calories than they do. Race walking does, however, burn roughly twice as many calories as regular walking, and the brisk pace is great for cardiovascular health.

Try it: Lace up your sneakers and pick up the pace! While Olympic race walking involves specific postures and techniques, speedwalking (walking fast, basically) is a simple, less rules-based alternative.

Weird but true: Team USA won’t have anyone competing in the Paris race walking competitions this year — which is too bad, because last month 58-year-old grandmother and former Olympian Michelle Rohl placed third in the U.S. trials. —ED

🚣🏼‍♂️ Row, row, row your boat

Through Aug. 3

Thanks to my freshman roommate on the college crew team and her going-off-before-dawn alarm clock, I know all too well that I do not have what it takes to be a rower. Still, a girl can dream — and cheer on Team USA as they hit this very cool nautical stadium in Vaires-sur-Marne, France. While rowing is often thought of in terms of the arm strength required, the legs matter a lot in this full-body workout, which works the pecs, abs, arms, obliques, quads, calves and (deep breath) glutes. Beyond muscular strength and power — the strength-training workouts rowers follow would make any bodybuilder blanch — endurance is also essential to this cardio-boosting sport.

Try it: You don’t need water to try this yourself — just hop on your gym’s rowing machine, or invest in one to have at home (you can park it in front of the TV and keep pace with the Olympians). Whether you choose an affordable, fold-up version or go for all the bells and whistles of a luxury machine, you’ll be reaping lots of benefits: improved cardiorespiratory fitness, a toned upper and lower body, calorie burning and more. Just bear in mind that rowers are susceptible to lower back pain, so make sure you’ve got the correct form to avoid injury.

Weird but true: Rowing can help you jump higher. Maybe it’s because of all the box jumps that are pretty standard for their strength-training, but rowers are known to have high vertical jumps. What’s more, vertical jump height demonstrates a rower’s power and is the single best predictor of how they’ll perform in a time trial, according to one study. —ED

🤺 Flex like a fencer

Through Aug. 4

Fencing may seem like a sport exclusive to the 1%, but there’s no denying that it’s elegant, intense (and a little mysterious) and captivating to watch — like swashbuckling beekeepers. After doing some digging I’ve also learned that it’s a sport that’s both mentally challenging — the focus, precision and (literally) quick-on-your-feet thinking required to outmaneuver an opponent is no joke — and physically demanding. According to the Olympic Fencing Club, the fast, nimble footwork involved requires (and boosts) agility, coordination and flexibility, while all that lunging, jumping and thrusting strengthens the hamstrings, quads, shoulders, glutes and more. Fencing also involves both aerobic and anaerobic activity, with quick bursts of dynamic movement followed by short periods of rest. All in all, it’s a vigorous workout, and there’s a significant risk of injury involved.

Try it: If you’re not quite ready to join the local fencing club (or if you don’t have a local fencing club!), consider adding more squats and lunges to your exercise routine. A boxing lunge with a small weight in each hand will also work those same muscles. Or check out Team USA’s Miles Chamley-Watson’s intense workout regimen … if you dare.

Fun fact: Olympic fencer Lee Kiefer (who is married to teammate Gerek Meinhardt) is the first American woman to win two gold medals in fencing. —ED

🏊‍♀️ Make a splash

Through Aug. 4

Whether you’re a fan of freestyle, butterfly or breaststroke, there’s something captivating about watching the grace and power of Olympic swimmers. I learned that the sport has been a staple in the Olympics since 1896 and is one of only four sports that have been around since the beginning of the modern games, along with athletics, fencing and artistic gymnastics. Swimming is one of the best exercises you can do — it’s low impact and therefore easy on the joints, and the resistance of the water helps build strong muscles.

Try it: While it’s hard to match Olympic athletes’ speed and style in the water, that shouldn’t stop you from taking a plunge in the pool yourself. Not sure where to start? Try these exercises you can do in a swimming pool, no laps required.

Fun fact: Up until the 1908 Olympics in London, swimming events took place in open water, with athletes battling the elements in their quest for the gold. —RGB

🏹 Shoot your shot

Through Aug. 4

I’ve been wanting to add to my embarrassingly short list of actual hobbies and fell in love with archery after trying it on a recent family vacation. Apparently, I’m far from alone when it comes to being a fan of the sport, which dates back centuries. I found out that archery was part of the Olympics in 1900, and just four years later it was one of the first sports to include women’s events. Archery has been described as “weaponized yoga” thanks to its ability to help you calm your mind and focus, but it also improves hand-eye coordination and strengthens your upper body and core.

Try it: Want to try your hand at hitting the target? You can find local archery lessons to try the sport yourself or join an archery club.

Fun fact: Lida Peyton “Eliza” Pollock from the U.S. is in the record books as the oldest female medalist in the Olympics. At 63, she competed in archery at the 1904 games and brought home the gold. —RGB

🦘Jump for joy

Women’s high jump final on Aug. 4; men’s final on Aug. 10

The average vertical jump height isn’t more than 20 inches. For high jumpers? They can propel their bodies over poles set multiple feet in the air. Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh holds the world record, which was just broken after 37 years in July, for jumping 6.88 feet. The track and field event is more than just hopping up and down. It involves taking a running approach to gain momentum, then pushing off into the air on your non-dominant foot, contorting your body into a J-shape, followed by the Fosbury Flop, a technique that’s basically a backwards slam onto a mat.

Try it: The high jump is a specialized skill, only to be done with proper technique and equipment. But jumping, in general, is highly encouraged! Jumping rope is cheap, easy and a cardiovascular health boon. A more advanced but still accessible exercise is box jumps, which will “will hammer every muscle in your legs, recruit your core, up your heart rate and do wonders for your coordination and balance,” according to Coach.

Fun fact: The Fosbury Flop, invented by Dick Fosbury in the 1960s, is a feat of physics that changed high jump competition. “It’s difficult to think of any other single athlete who made such a lasting impact on the way one sport is practiced,” Olympics.com said. —LT

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