Have you ever thought about how long you are on your feet during an Ironman marathon? For most people, it is between 3 and 6 hours.
How much time do you spend on your feet on a normal day?
If you work in retail or some other jobs you may already be spending plenty of time on your feet. But what if you work at a desk? How many hours do you spend sitting?
It is not wise to practice running for 5 hours if that is your likely Ironman time, but you can strengthen your body to handle being on your feet for that length of time by spending more time… on your feet.
There are even productivity and health benefits. Research shows that sitting does all kinds of bad things to our body too.
See the graphic at the end of this post.
I have been experimenting with working standing up and I have found that I am much more alert and productive.
I felt achy at first, but now I feel quite comfortable and stronger at my core as a result. Because I am not training as much as I used too I am definitely losing some fitness, but I think this extra standing is helping (just a bit) to maintain some of my fitness.
I just put a small table on top of my desk and used my laptop on top.
Some people even set up their desk with a treadmill so they can walk and type at the same time! Train while you work. You could even try running. But I think you will have difficulty typing and your keyboard is likely to get all sweaty. On the other hand, it could work if you have a long document to read or other work that requires minimal contact with the computer.
So there you have it. Another slightly unusual training tip that might just help you at the end of your Ironman marathon.
So don’t just sit there… get up and get on your feet.
Check out this infographic to see some of the statistics:
