One of the big questions that people have is how can I get more energy? How can I be more mobile and get more movement into a working day? For many of you, or perhaps most of you, your working days will be relatively sedentary. Movement snacking, which is something I have already written about in one of my previous blogs, is a partial solution to getting more energy, improving your mood and getting your body moving.  

But if you are not familiar with the concept of movement snacking, here is a quick definition: A movement snack is a little pocket of movement, just a minute of movement every hour. For example, you might get out of your chair and you may do some squats. Or, you may go up and down your stairs a few times. 

This month I’ll share quick energisers or movement snacks that you can build into your day. 

Connecting Your Mind with Your Body 

This energiser is designed to get you out of your head quickly, connect your mind with your body.  

How to do this? A Qigong Twist is a great full-body movement, it gets your whole body moving and gets your breath going. 

The Qigong movement gets the energy flow or QI going. But more than that, it starts connecting your brain to your body. 

Some call it Qi or Chi, or maybe blood flow, electricity, neutrons, protons, all of the above. 

It’s a simple movement twisting the spine slightly, making sure to slightly bend the knees, perfect for waking up the joints. Turn the head, let the neck relax and take some deep breaths with it. 

Shake It Out 

Bend your knees, jump up and down and shake. By jumping up and down, you’re getting your joints activated, getting some blood flow. Using that connective tissue, plus shaking is meant to help release stress. It gets energy around your body, flowing through the Meridian lines on your body. Once they’re activated, they get energised and send good energy around the body. 

If It All Sounds Nuts, Just Think of It as a Dance 

Dancing we all know is good for you, emotionally and physically. So just shake it out, jump up and down. Get everyone in the office/home doing that, joining in next time you see them. So following on from this once you’ve shaken out a little bit and feel a bit de-stressed. We want you to twist. So you’re going to twist and touch the opposite foot, and then jump, and touch the other foot. 

Benefits of Jumping and Twisting 

This is a simple way to energise. Jumping helps to lighten the mood, get your body feeling agile. Jumping gets your blood rushing and the oxygen going. Twisting is great it gets the spine, gets the vertebrae, some well needed movement and you get some blood flow there as well. So get silly, give them a bash. As always have fun and let us know how you get on.