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If you're a full-time office employee, the odds are you spend around 40 hours a week at your desk - a quarter of your life. Apart from the occasional walk to the water-cooler, you probably do very little exercise. Indeed, if your posture is as bad as mine, you can do yourself some lasting damage. You're also at risk of RSI, carpal tunnel syndrome, vision problems if you're just looking at a screen...

However, it is possible to use the three months a year you spend at work not just to avoid getting hurt, but to get fit. Avoiding getting hurt is mainly a matter of common sense: make sure you take regular breaks from looking at the screen, stretch and walk around as often as you can (go and talk to your colleagues instead of e-mailing or calling them), look into desktop yoga ( http://www.mydailyyoga.com./yo gaindex.html ) and make sure your workstation is ergonomically set up.

Keeping fit is trickier. One easy way to work out a little at work is to replace your desk chair with a $10 exercise ball. For one thing, they help you to sit up straight, because that's the easiest position to balance in. For another, you feel almost obliged to bounce a little bit, all the time. Both of these things are good for your muscles, and bouncing even burns a few calories.

If you're in a climate where cycling or walking to work is a possibility, this can help your fitness (if you have a 30-minute cycle to work, or even to the station, that's about twice as much exercise as the recommended weekly minimum) as well as saving you money on gas.

There are countless little ways to keep yourself active - use the stairs as much as you can. Take a parking spot further away from the door and walk a little extra. Every extra bit of exercise you do helps - even if only a little - from vegetating at your desk. You'll feel more alert and maybe even enjoy being at work. Maybe.

Learn more about this author, Colin Beveridge.
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