Here is a 15-minute office functional fitness workout for your next lunch break.

Stuck twiddling your thumbs, or find yourself scrolling on your phone while eating snacks during your lunch break instead of that gym workout you have said you are going to do for the past week. Boy, I have the solution for you!

These days the lunch breaks we get are so short there is nowhere near enough time to go to the gym and complete an effective workout.

So next time you find yourself twiddling your thumbs on your lunch break try this office functional fitness workout.

What is functional fitness?

Functional fitness has been increasing in popularity within the last few years. It is more about working towards a fit and healthy lifestyle rather than a certain look/physique. Plus it is mostly done with just your body weight so is the perfect thing for the office or at home.

It targets movements that revolve around your daily life, the more functional fitness you do at an earlier age the more likely your mobility will decline slower as you get older.

Honestly, I would highly recommend functional fitness to those who don’t feel the need to reach a certain look but want to improve their overall health for now and for their future selves.

The key benefits are:

• Improved mobility
• Improved speed
• Improved strength
• Improved coordination

Read more about functional fitness here.

It is important to make sure you warm up before starting your workouts. If you do not warm up beforehand your muscles will not be ready for the exercises. This can lead to injury as well as decrease your progress.

It’s time for some stretches!

As we are working the whole body in this workout we need to stretch both the lower and the upper body.

There are so many great stretches, the important thing is we don’t need to hold them for too long around 5 seconds. Again this is helping blood flow to our muscles to prepare them for the workout ahead.

Choose 2-3 lower body stretches and 1-2 upper body stretches to do.

The office functional fitness workout!

Now it’s time for the fun part!

Workout Overview.

Keep reading to find details of how to complete each exercise and which muscles you should feel the burn.

Instructions.

If you want to make the most of this office functional fitness workout, I would recommend doing each exercise for a timed period and then resting between each exercise. So it would come to 40 seconds working and 20 seconds resting. Then you repeat this through once more. This means you can keep it under 15 minutes in total, as time is easier to control than reps.

However, if you wanted to complete this workout in terms of reps and sets you most certainly can. I would recommend doing 3 sets of each exercise and 8-10 reps in each.

Repeat both once more; twice more if you have time (will add an extra 7 minutes to your workout, including the 2-minute rest period between each repeat). Do the same for the rep workout, obviously, the time depends on the individual.

Squats with an overhead press.

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart
• Squat down engaging your core to help you keep balanced
• Push yourself back up using your legs and at the same time push your arms above your head (replicating lifting something onto a shelf)
• Repeat the movement for the allotted time/reps

Muscles to engage: This exercise will work your quads and calves in particular but you should remember to try to keep your core engaged. This will help your balance.

To make it harder: Add a small weight; there is no need to add heavy weights. Try to mimic the weight of something you would pick up in everyday life.

Walking Lunges.

• Start with your feet shoulder-width apart
• Step forward and lunge down; keeping your front knee bent at a right angle
• Try not to lean too far forward, keep your body slightly tilted towards the ground and engage your core.
• Bring your back foot back next to where your front foot is
• Repeat the steps for the allotted time/reps

Muscles to engage: This will engage your quads as well as your core muscles

To Make it harder: Add a small twist at the waist when you lunge down; this will help you improve your balance and mobility.

Also if you do not have enough space for walking lunges static ones will work as well.

Press-ups with plank taps

• Start in a classic press-up position.
• Keep your back straight and engage your core to keep balance
• By bending your elbows lower yourself down keeping your back flat, let your arms make an angle around 45 degrees to your body. (this will prevent a shoulder injury.
• Push yourself back up to the original position
• With your right hand tap your left shoulder and place it back down. Repeat with your left hand and right shoulder
• Repeat movements for the allotted time period/reps

Muscles to engage: This one will work your triceps chest and shoulders whilst also strengthening your core.

To make it easier: Try to do kneeling press-ups if you are unable to do regular ones. If you can for the taps get into a regular press-up position as will be more beneficial.

Burpees.

• Get down into a press-up position
• Jump both feet in towards your elbows, this is your starting position.
• Jump both feet out (extending your legs) then back into your chest.
• Drive your heels into the floor and jump up, swinging your arms to help you get more momentum
• Repeat this process for the allotted time period/reps

Muscles to engage: This one works your whole body, it raises your heart rate and gets the blood pumping. It is great for burning fat.

To make it easier: Burpees are an intense exercise, but there are adjustments you can make to ease the intensity. Like with the squats instead of jumping up, drive your heels in and extend up onto your tiptoes. And if jumping your feet in and out is too intense try doing a single foot at each time, do it as fast as you can though so that you can still raise your heart rate and feel the burn.

Knee march balance

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart
• Have one hand over your head to help balance
• Bring your left knee up towards your chest hold for 3 seconds then place back down; repeat with your right foot
• If you need to hold onto your knee; try not to as won’t engage your core as much.
• Try to make the knee march a quick movement; aim to drive the knee up, hold it there and then bring it back down.
• Repeat for the allotted time period/reps

Muscles to engage: This will engage your core mostly but it focuses on working on your balance whilst being mobile.

To make it harder: hold a weight with the arm that is above your head. It does not have to be a dumbbell it could be anything slightly heavy. Remember things are more about the movement than how much burn you get from the exercise so do not worry about having a very heavy weight.

Cooldown.

Just like warming up, you need to cool down your body. You will find simple stretches to suffice to cool down your muscles.

Choose lower and upper body stretches from the warm-up but hold them for 8-10 seconds instead. This helps to prevent your muscles from seizing up.

If you want to take your cool down a step further, try foam rolling out your muscles. If you don’t have a roller you can always use an old tennis ball (I will say the tennis ball may hurt more!)

Bonus challenge:

Is the quick lunch break workout not enough for you? Try to complete this challenge for 5/7 days of the week.

Try to get your 10,000 steps in each day. Walking is one of the most underestimated forms of fitness and has so many general benefits.

Actionable steps.

• Try walking to work if you can, or park somewhere within walking distance of your work to then walk from there
• Get in steps around the office, it’s good to stand up and stretch your legs around every 1-2 hours. Try to do this, even if it’s just a small lap of the room.
• Offer to go and get your co-workers lunch or walk to the cafeteria with them. It is good to keep your workplace separate from where you eat so even if you bring lunch with you walk somewhere else to eat it if you can.

If you struggle to stay motivated with workout out and want to find out the secret read this article to help you stop those excuses.