As women in technology, overlooking our physical health can be easy.
Working as any type of tech professional is no easy job. Work, school, or even just hobbies can quickly become over demanding.
Often times, leaving you spending much of your time sitting down, on your laptop.
This post is for all my women in tech out there, I want to talk about why maintaining regular physical activity is so critical. Especially for us.
In This Post You’ll Find:
Tech Related Careers Tend to Be More Sedentary
It’s no secret that anyone in tech typically spends tons and tons of time sitting down, on their laptop.
I mean, that’s where most things tech are happening!
Unfortunately, this means more time spent on our laptops, and less time spent off our laptops.
Which also means more time spent sitting down and less time spent moving around, being active.
The good news is, this only applies to while we’re working.
For those of us in tech, we need to get more creative with how we spend our time away from our screens.
Optimizing the time we spend away from work and our laptops is going to be key to maintaining our physical health.
Health guidelines still apply to us, and regular physical activity is crucial for our health and well being.
So although we may be in or pursuing more sedentary careers, it doesn’t mean we need to live a sedentary lifestyle.
A Sedentary Lifestyle Might Not be What You’re Used to
For me personally, I was always, always such an active person. No matter what I was doing, I loved being active and working out!
That was before I entered a tech field and staying active wasn’t as easy.
If you find yourself in the same situation, you’re not alone. This shift to a more sedentary life that a tech career demands might be something new for you.
The good news is, you never actually have to give up your active lifestyle or your love for it.
I’m living proof that you can pursue both physical health and wellness and a tech related career.
There are tons and tons of ways to maintain your active lifestyle, even while being in a sedentary career.
Why Regular Exercise is A Must For Women in Tech
As I mentioned earlier, tech careers are extremely demanding of any inside of them.
We need to sit still, be focused, and constantly be working our minds.
This leaves very little room for any type of physical activity and fitness throughout your day.
That’s why finding ways to implement regular exercise into your routine is an absolute must for your long term health!
Just because your career requires a lot of sitting, doesn’t mean that’s the type of lifestyle you need to live.
Regular Exercise Provides Tons of Health Benefits for Female Tech Professionals
The benefits of regular exercise for everyone are unmatched. It’s seriously one of the best decisions anyone can make to better their health.
No matter who we are or what we do, we can all benefit from adding more exercise into our lives.
This is especially true for anyone in any tech related field. Our work strengthens our minds, but it doesn’t strengthen our bodies.
In fact, the excessive sitting from work can actually harm our bodies. Doing a job that has the potential to be harmful for our bodies, it makes sense why we’d be especially careful to prioritize our bodies outside of work.
Implementing a consistent workout routine into your weekly schedule is one of the best ways to do that.
This regular exercise can help to improve heart and brain health, helps you maintain a healthy weight, improves metabolism, aids fat loss, prevents and improves mood disorders like depression and anxiety, the list goes on and on.
Don’t let your job get in the way of you living a healthy, active lifestyle.
Combat Constant Sitting With a Regular Exercise Routine
I mentioned earlier that excessive sitting can become pretty harmful for our bodies.
Things like increased risk of heart problems, back issues, poor posture, decreased circulation, decreased metabolism, can all result from sitting too much.
However, no need to panic just yet. Like I mentioned before, just because your career requires tons of sitting, doesn’t mean your life needs to.
And that, is where exercise comes in.
Finding time, in your day where you can to stretch your legs and get your body moving is crucial.
If you feel like you can’t find time to exercise, you’ll need to try and make time.
This might require some type of sacrifice. Maybe you’ll need to wake up earlier, stay up later, or sacrifice some of your phone/TV time just to fit in a workout.
Which probably won’t sound appealing, but sacrifices to better yourself and your health are always always worth it in the long term.
Adopting an active lifestyle outside of work is the best way to combat all the sitting you do while you’re at work.
Relieve Stress After Long Demanding Hours of Work
Exercise is a great opportunity to give your brain a break!
Trust me, I know just how stressful anything tech related can be.
It’s exhausting, especially mentally!
Exercise is a great way to refresh your mind and give it a break. Exercising before, during, or after a long, demanding day has all sorts of benefits for your mind and body.
Whenever I’m stuck on a writing a program and find myself exhausted from staring at my laptop, I often turn to exercise to give me a break.
Exercising will help you clear your mind, regain focus, and get rid of any brain fog you may have.
The funny thin is, I can spend hours staring at a program trying to find a solution. But it’s times when I pause, walk away, and do some physical activity that I come up with solutions to my most complicated projects.
Not only that, but these benefits carry with you even after you’re done working out. In the hours and days that follow, you can still gain mental benefit from your last workout days before.
Promote Longevity and Maintain Your Health
Like I’ve mentioned before, working a job that doesn’t require much activity can become detrimental long term.
And as tempting as it may be to come home and relax on the coach after a long day of work, more sitting isn’t exactly what our bodies need.
A sitting job doesn’t do any good for your body. Your muscles, bones, joints, and heart all suffer the more time you spend sitting down.
If you want to maintain your health in these areas and maintain mobility throughout your life, you’ll need to start moving now.
Unfortunately for us, we can’t rely on our jobs to give us that benefit.
Working an exercise into your routine at some point in your day is key to your long term health.
As exhausting as it may seem to implement into your routine, regular exercise will provide so many benefits for your body. Giving you the best chance at living a long, healthy life.
Start Your First Workout Routine Today
Never under-estimate the benefits of regular exercise. There are so many aspects of your life that exercise transforms, your physical health is just one of them.
That’s why finding a way to work regular exercise into your schedule, no matter how busy it might already be, is crucial.
Depending on your fitness background, you may or may not be too familiar with all the exercises there are to explore.
Whether it be walking, running, weightlifting, yoga, or any other type of exercise out there, if it gets your body moving, it’ll be effective.
Find a workout style that works for you, and go from there.
After that, you can start a simple and effective workout routine.
There’s no need to overcomplicate things. Simple workouts can be just as effective as complex ones.
Once you have your routine started, it’ll be much easier for you to remain consistent with your workouts and committed to following through with your workouts.
Takeaways
Regular exercise is beneficial for just about anyone out there, but especially for women in tech.
As female tech professionals, we’re constantly pressured to spend long hours every day sitting down on our laptops.
Of course it’s all worthwhile, but if we don’t do something to counteract this sitting, it can become harmful long term.
That’s why starting a regular exercise routine and consistently working out every week is the best thing you can do for yourself.
More of My Post’s on Women’s Fitness and Health:
How Many Sets and Reps You Should Do to Achieve Your Fitness Goals
10 Key Muscle Groups All Women Should Train [A Complete Guide]