Summary:
- Be on your feet as much as possible.
- Be conscious of how you move during the day.
- Do what you can, when you can.
- Don’t be too hard on yourself.
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Teaching is a very demanding profession. You work way longer hours that you are technically employed for, and your work-life balance is likely to suffer. As your work-life balance suffers, not only are you more likely to burn out, but it can also make it much more difficult to look after your health.
Getting enough exercise is a common remedy to the stresses of life. If your brain chemistry permits it, exercise can give you a little endorphin boost as well as keeping you fit and healthy. Getting some exercise outside also has the added benefit of ensuring you get a little extra sunlight, which is essential for the health and happiness of many people.
How could you possibly get enough exercise as a teacher though? You get to school while it’s still dark, you stay until well after the students have left, and then you keep working when you get home to make sure that you can do it all again tomorrow! You don’t have any extra time in your day, so how are you going to add another thing? More than that, how are you going to add another thing that naturally tires you out more?
than going to the gym a few times a week.
The key to success is to add very little. Incidental exercise is something that people have been experimenting more with and seems that it can have a profound impact on your health. The key to staying fit when you’re busy all of the time is to fit your exercise into as many of your daily activities and routines as possible.
Be on your feet as much as possible.
Don’t be that teacher who sits at their desk at the front of the class all day. One of the biggest changes that you can make to your general fitness is to simply move more, and we do have plenty of opportunities to do that as teachers. Stand up and walk around the room to talk to students and check in on how they are going with their work.
Another great opportunity to get more steps in during the day is to make use of your time on yard duty. If you are supervising a particular area, wander around. Patrol the area instead of just finding the best vantage point to stay still. I know that walking around for the whole of lunch time might be the last thing that you feel like doing after teaching all day, but this is a key strategy to moving as much as you should.
Be conscious of how you move during the day.
This is not really about how much you move, but how you are moving. When you are talking to a student while they are sitting at their desk, squat down to their level to talk to them. Use the opportunity to get a little bit of leg exercise in, and then go and squat to talk to the next student ten minutes later. If you need to do some printing before the next lesson, power walk there.
Carry your books from classroom to classroom where you can instead of using a trolley. Sit down on the floor with your students when possible instead of using a chair. All of theses things are small changes that you can make to how you do things during the day that can help you slowly become stronger and fitter.
This is all overshadowed by actually participating in physical activity with your students. You don’t need to be running around on the oval with them, but if you are prepared with the right footwear, you may be able to kick a ball around or shoot some hoops while you’re teaching them phys. Ed. or on yard duty.
Do what you can, when you can.
If you do have more of a desk job, which you can have as a teacher if you’re teaching online, you do still have some options. Even if you’d just like to double down and spend as much time as possible moving, getting some specialised equipment for your desk can really help.
Standing desks have been popular, and for good reason. They’re great for getting you more active during the day by themselves, but you can also get added gear like under-desk walking pads or little treadmills so that you can literally be walking while you’re working. It is important to remember that if you choose to invest in this, make sure you do still have a good chair and that your desk can be lowered so that you can take a break when you’re tired.
If getting a whole new desk and a mini treadmill is not possible, there are a couple exercise machines (both pedal machines and elliptical machines) that you can fit under your desk to get a little extra movement in your day. I find that these are great regardless of whether I need more exercise as they keep me from fidgeting, and many of my students have found the same.
Don’t be too hard on yourself.
Teachers who are healthier and happier results in more learning for our students. However, the nature of work and our modern lifestyles makes it hard to get the amount of movement that you need. As teachers, we are generally pretty lucky. We don’t need to sit down all day every day, but we’re also not doing back-breaking labor. I know that it is frustrating when you don’t have the time or energy for the new fitness program that you’ve heard so much about, but just slotting more incidental exercise into your day can actually give you some surprising benefits.
This may seem really daunting at first, and exercise usually does. If you’ve ever been to a gym, you probably remember your first time. Anxious, not sure what to do, and constantly aware of who is looking at you and what you’re doing. Make sure that you stay within your comfort zone, especially if there is any risk of injury, but try to test your boundaries a little.
As humans, we adapt to what we do often. If you make moving more and brief bouts of exercise the norm, then your body will adapt to be able to do that. It will get easier, both physically and mentally, if you can commit to building some more movement into your current routines.
