progressive, full body, 5 min at a time in street clothes?
December 22, 2019 12:53 PM Subscribe
Please suggest activities/movement sequences that I can do to get out of my head during hourly breaks in my office (door closed :))
This needs to involve some sort of progressive skill-building so that I can actually take my mind off of work. I already have an exercise routine that works for me, but would like to "break" more effectively and feel more restored.
Bonus if 1) it's hilarious, 2) it's fun, 3) can be done in a bathroom stall, for days when I'm working in a coffee shop or library.
Ideas so far:
- yoga? the balance-based poses?
- hacky sack/dribbling soccer ball
- ...[seeking help from hive mind]
This needs to involve some sort of progressive skill-building so that I can actually take my mind off of work. I already have an exercise routine that works for me, but would like to "break" more effectively and feel more restored.
Bonus if 1) it's hilarious, 2) it's fun, 3) can be done in a bathroom stall, for days when I'm working in a coffee shop or library.
Ideas so far:
- yoga? the balance-based poses?
- hacky sack/dribbling soccer ball
- ...[seeking help from hive mind]
Here are some guided meditation .mp3s from UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center, ranging from 3 to 20 minutes in length. Or skip about 23 minutes into the Youtube video in this decade-old FPP for a ~45-minute-long session with more exposition, led by Jon Kabat-Zinn (a medical stress reduction researcher) at Google.
posted by XMLicious at 1:12 PM on December 22, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by XMLicious at 1:12 PM on December 22, 2019 [6 favorites]
How good is your soundproofing? Because some instruments are quiet enough to not be disruptive in an office, especially electric ones where you only hear what's sent through the speakers (or headphones). Learn to play violin! (Electric violins are... not cheap. But electric keyboards are. Harmonicas aren't quiet but may be quiet enough, depending on your office. Ukeleles are fun.)
Irish ceili dance might be hard to learn solo, but if you can get the basics from somewhere, practicing solo works fine.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 1:29 PM on December 22, 2019
Irish ceili dance might be hard to learn solo, but if you can get the basics from somewhere, practicing solo works fine.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 1:29 PM on December 22, 2019
I love hacky sack as much as anyone, but doing it in a bathroom stall would require serious talent. Also, speaking from experience, keep that office door closed, because doing it at work is an express route to being “the quirky one”.
Juggling might scratch the same itch. (That is, with balls or bowling pins or whatever in your hands, not in the soccer sense of the term.) It’s a steeper learning curve, but the focus that’s required is good for taking your mind off of things. Also, because it’s so hard, people tend to be impressed by even mediocre juggling. Cf hacky sack, where you’ll get made fun of even if you’re world-class. It’s fun to show off at the grocery store, too - you can just pick up some apples or onions or something.
If you want to go full galaxy brain, I have, on a couple of occasions, juggled whilst hacking the sack. It’s impossible to keep either going very long, but that’ll really test your mental focus and physical coordination.
posted by kevinbelt at 1:35 PM on December 22, 2019 [3 favorites]
Juggling might scratch the same itch. (That is, with balls or bowling pins or whatever in your hands, not in the soccer sense of the term.) It’s a steeper learning curve, but the focus that’s required is good for taking your mind off of things. Also, because it’s so hard, people tend to be impressed by even mediocre juggling. Cf hacky sack, where you’ll get made fun of even if you’re world-class. It’s fun to show off at the grocery store, too - you can just pick up some apples or onions or something.
If you want to go full galaxy brain, I have, on a couple of occasions, juggled whilst hacking the sack. It’s impossible to keep either going very long, but that’ll really test your mental focus and physical coordination.
posted by kevinbelt at 1:35 PM on December 22, 2019 [3 favorites]
Imagine yourself occupying the space on the other side of your skin.
posted by Quisp Lover at 2:55 PM on December 22, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Quisp Lover at 2:55 PM on December 22, 2019 [3 favorites]
Dance routines.
For times when you are in the office with the door closed begin with cancan. For the bathroom stall with no room to kick, try tap or belly dance. Wear your music to dance to this. You can get over the top lively music in all three of those genres.
If you don't have an iPod or whatever personal electronic necessary to provide dance music then you can work on a mime routine... The trapped in an invisible box one would be good to practice in the bathroom stall with the stall walls standing in for the invisible box.
Martial arts routines are also good. I suggest fencing, with lunges and guard poses. Don't invest in a foil, just use the cardboard tube from the inside of a roll of Christmas wrap.
I would personally not recommend juggling in a bathroom stall - many of them do not have toilet lids, so a dropped bean bag could cause a tragic splash. A child of mine once swiped a juggler's brocade bean bag at an SCA event when she was three, smuggled it home and then dropped it into our toilet to get rid of the evidence, where it spent the night. The beans inside expanded as they soaked, the way beans will do and the toilet was blocked with great efficiency. So no, don't juggle bean bags where they might fall in the po. You will never want to juggle with that bean bag ever again.
posted by Jane the Brown at 2:57 PM on December 22, 2019 [4 favorites]
For times when you are in the office with the door closed begin with cancan. For the bathroom stall with no room to kick, try tap or belly dance. Wear your music to dance to this. You can get over the top lively music in all three of those genres.
If you don't have an iPod or whatever personal electronic necessary to provide dance music then you can work on a mime routine... The trapped in an invisible box one would be good to practice in the bathroom stall with the stall walls standing in for the invisible box.
Martial arts routines are also good. I suggest fencing, with lunges and guard poses. Don't invest in a foil, just use the cardboard tube from the inside of a roll of Christmas wrap.
I would personally not recommend juggling in a bathroom stall - many of them do not have toilet lids, so a dropped bean bag could cause a tragic splash. A child of mine once swiped a juggler's brocade bean bag at an SCA event when she was three, smuggled it home and then dropped it into our toilet to get rid of the evidence, where it spent the night. The beans inside expanded as they soaked, the way beans will do and the toilet was blocked with great efficiency. So no, don't juggle bean bags where they might fall in the po. You will never want to juggle with that bean bag ever again.
posted by Jane the Brown at 2:57 PM on December 22, 2019 [4 favorites]
The Down Dog app has chair yoga routines, you could start a session and do it in 5-min chunks.
posted by medusa at 6:47 PM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by medusa at 6:47 PM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
bounce your body up and down - feet stay grounded and you shake your whole body to the top of your skull (so the neck gets movement too) - feel like all your muscles and flesh are just shaking off your bones - really relaxing when you get a good rhythm going
posted by kokaku at 7:28 PM on December 22, 2019
posted by kokaku at 7:28 PM on December 22, 2019
I'm a big fan of planks. I started with 30 s and worked my way up to 2 min. From there you could move on to lifting one arm and one leg, or even go up to a 5 minute plank. Definitely full body.
posted by disconnect at 7:14 AM on December 23, 2019
posted by disconnect at 7:14 AM on December 23, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Grandysaur at 12:57 PM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]