Laura Putnam: How to Get More Movement In At Work

Do you usually eat your lunch at your desk?   In this episode of The Darin Olien Show, I chat with Laura Putnam about how our society is built around sitting down. Our cities are made for driving, our offices are made for sitting, and our homes are made for lounging. But all of this sitting-down time is detrimental to our health, thus the importance of incorporating movement in the areas of your life where you spend most of your time: at work.    Laura also shares a few movements you can easily incorporate in your day-to-day to get started and discusses which movement patterns are best for you.   Laura is a speaker, author, and activator. She founded Motion Infusion in 2008, inspired by her discoveries around the need for motion. Movement is one of the best things we can do for our bodies and our brains. The problem is, we all live in a world that conspires against us getting active - or being well. She believes it's time we take action.     What we discuss:   07:21: What made Laura start her career in movement? 11:20: What was Laura’s experience with teaching her method to children? 16:40: If we’re born to move, why are we discouraged to do so by society? 22:42: How can you incorporate more movement in your life? 28:26: What movements can you implement right away? 33:06: Is exercise really necessary to be healthy? 44:06: Are we being productive if we aren’t moving? 52:05: What kinds of movement patterns are best?   Key Takeaways:   The biggest misconception when it comes to getting active is what it means to get active. The reality is that you don’t need exercise; what you need is movement. So if you don’t want to spend one hour at the gym every day, you don’t need to. But you need to find opportunities in your day-to-day to get movement in, such as taking your meetings standing up or parking your car further away from the metro station.    As adults, we spend most of our time at work, sitting down at our office. Given this takes up the bulk of our days, your workplace should be the first place you look to leverage as an opportunity to incorporate more movement into your day. Whether it’s taking your phone calls standing up, walking to get lunch, or keeping your trash can far away from your cubicle, any of these types of hacks can help you get more movement in easily. It’s just a question of setting it up for yourself, once.    With the way we live our day-to-day, an alien watching us humans go through life would believe we are born to sit. But that couldn’t be further from the truth - we aren’t meant to be sitting in our cars, office chairs, and sofas for the majority of our days. We are meant to get up and move.   Find more from Darin:   Website: https://darinolien.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Darinolien/ Book: https://darinolien.com/fatal-conveniences-book/ Down to Earth: https://darinolien.com/down-to-earth/     Find more from Laura:   Website: https://www.lauraputnam.com/ and https://www.motioninfusion.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraputnamauthor/     More links:   Manna Vitality: https://www.mannavitality.com/ Therasage: https://therasage.com/ Bite: https://bitetoothpastebits.com/