Working out at work

The Globe and Mail’s work blogger, Craig Silverman, has a post today about surviving the office gym. His rules aren’t that different from the usual gym etiquette (with one exception: “Try to avoid parading around naked in the change rooms. The mental image will stick with colleagues forever.”)

While I haven’t seen any statistics on exactly how many workplaces in Canada have on-site gyms, squeezing fitness into your workday is a great approach – whether you’ve got the facilities for it or not. It helps beat daily stress and eliminates the too tired/too busy excuses that are all-to-easy to find once the day is done.

The question is, how to do it. My colleague, Lisa Murphy, often walks to our office on the way in (she’s sporting some mean blisters today as a result), but as someone who prefers to be in the office for 8, that would mean I had to leave my place really, really early. So that’s out.

At my old office, coworker Karen and I tried lunchtime jogs a couple of days a week. But while I enjoyed the fact that getting my blood pumping usually eliminated my afternoon slump, I hated having to come back to my desk feeling sweaty and unkempt.

So as you can see, I have yet to find the ideal solution. But for those of you who do work out at work, I’d love to hear how you do it. And for those of you who don’t but want to, what’s holding you back?