Working out when working from home

Working out and the Pomodoro Technique

For years, I heard friends and family with full-time jobs talk about how difficult it was to find time to exercise. The envy/jealousy in in their voices at a home office worker like yours truly could easily be heard. Yet working from home far from guarantees you will become a gym rat or even get out for a walk every day.

For those who worked from home during the pandemic, you soon discovered that the hours absorbed by a commute were transferred to work. And working out while working from home was not quite as easy as you first thought.

Welcome to the club.

True, it is far easier to get a workout from home when you work out of the home. It still requires some discipline and structure. Especially if you require a trip to the gym to get your workout in. Even if you don’t, it still requires a plan.

About 16 years ago, I discovered bodyweight exercises through Matt Furey and his Combat Conditioning program. Through being a member of the Furey Faithful, an exclusive membership that features Matt’s tips on these exercises and other self-improvement pointers. The beauty of el Furecat’s exercises is many of them do not require more than a few minutes of your time. Remarkably, you get a great workout and results. Yet that’s another tale.

With a core routine of Hindu pushups and Hindu squats, I have shaped a workout routine that works for my body and my day. Many of the exercises I do are incorporated into my workday.

How do I do that?

Simple, the Pomodoro Technique.

For those unfamiliar, Pomodoro refers to the timers your mother or grandmother used to use in the kitchen. The concept works like this. Set your Pomodoro for 25 minutes of work. Then take a five-minute break. Work for 25 minutes, and then a five-minute break. After four 25-minute sessions, take a 15-minute break.

My exercise program, largely, is fit in some Combat Conditioning exercises during those breaks. Not every break. Some I use for the bathroom, to get the mail, refill my coffee, etc. Yet through the course of the day, I can knock out a number of reps on the exercises I do during the course of my workday.

There are other things I do to stay mentally and physically fit that require more than 15 minutes. Those are done outside the workday. Yet it’s nice to know that I can go to work and end my feeling like I don’t have to get out to the gym.

Of course, for me, exercise has not really been strictly about the physical benefits. It’s mostly mental. And when you write for a living, knocking out 50 Hindu pushups on my five-minute break clears my head, gets my heart rate up, and puts me in a better position to continue writing.

But that’s me?

How do you fit your exercise routine into work-from-home experience? Please drop a line to share.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Pomodoro technique, there are many resources out there. Here’s one:

Again, if you want to learn some exercises that have this 50-something feeling better than he did in his 20s, check out Matt Furey’s Combat Conditioning.