Practical Tips for Desk Workers to Move More with Jon Field
Movement is Medicine with Jon Field
Jon Field, co-founder of Field of Fitness, brings 25 years of fitness expertise to his clients. A former semi-professional sportsman and Seaford College scholar, he has spent the last 16 years leading this highly personalised training space, helping individuals over 40 achieve sustainable fitness goals in a welcoming community. Follow Jon on Instagram (@fieldy82).
Many of us start the new year with good intentions like this is going to be the year I am absolutely going to focus on my health.
But many of the professionals I speak to feel that their health goals are hindered by their work that finds them glued to a screen for so many hours a day that it impacts their health and potentially their longevity.
So I asked Jon Field, co-founder and director of Field of Fitness, to join me on the Joy at Work podcast.
We're unpacking why movement is the most underrated medication out there, the critical difference between exercise and training, and why this is non-negotiable if we want to get strong enough to grow old.
[00:00] Join Jon Field co-founder and Director of Field of Fitness
[00:43] The Importance of Movement
[01:36] Movement as Medicine
[04:11] Exercise vs. Training
[07:00] Its Never Too Late to Start Training
[08:53] Practical Tips for Desk Workers to Move More
If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy my Life Satisfaction Assessment. It's a 30-minute program where I guide you through a deep dive into 10 areas of your life to assess what's bringing you joy and what's bringing you down. I call it Derailed and it's a fabulous place to begin a joy-at-work redesign.
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Movement is Medicine with Jon Field co-founder and Director of Field of Fitness
Lucia Knight: I've done a decent amount of exercise throughout my whole life, but I didn't start training until I was 49 years old. The gym I chose was different, it stood out. Why? It was a community of slightly older people, for whom long term fitness Is one of their big life priorities. By older I mean there are no 19 year old bros grunting in the corner and the average age of members is somewhere between 52 and 55.
My people, I talk to so many people like me, whose work finds them glued to a screen for so many hours a day that it impacts our health and potentially our longevity.
The Importance of Movement
Lucia Knight: So I asked Jon Field, co founder and director of Field of Fitness, my gym, to join me on the Joy at Work podcast. Today, we're unpacking the medicine of movement, the critical difference between exercise, And training and why one of those is non negotiable if we want to get strong enough to grow old, let's dive in.
Jon, many of us start the new year with good intentions, like this is going to be the year I am absolutely going to focus on my health, but many of the professionals I speak to feel that their health goals are hindered. by their work. And by that large portions of the day, staring at screens, sitting down all day, in meetings, etc.
Movement as Medicine
Lucia Knight: So you talk about something, you talk about movement being medicine. Tell me more.
Jon Field: Okay movement is actually, believe it or not, medicine. Research has proved that these days, the more we move, the better we feel. Research has also proved that to attack or certainly play with our nervous system.
So if we want to stimulate our nervous system, we need movement, we need growth, we need that stimulation. Sadly though, what we tend to do is we sit for long periods of time and we only ever get up when we feel we need to get up. When actually it's probably a bit too late for that. So I'm a big believer of making sure that we move consistently.
I would say, so if we sit behind desks for long periods of time, it should be every 45 minutes, every 50 minutes that we should be getting up and we should be walking around the office or speak to a colleague.
And actually did you know that exercise is one of the most underused antidepressants that's out.
So when we talk about one movement being medicine, Number two is about the power of movement is far outweighs any forms of medication. Obviously, there are certain places for medication. Of course, there are. However, if we can replace medicine with movement, better carry over that we get onto everyday life is hugely more beneficial than being on some forms of medication.
So I'm a believer that creating good habits Move consistently. Move often.
It's also a choice. I'm a big believer it's a choice that you make to sit at a screen all day. No one's pinning you down. You don't get into work, I hope, and be strapped into the seat and being told you cannot move for nine hours.
Keep looking at the screen. Try and keep yourself awake and don't let your eyes go square. So to me, no, I've never been someone who sits behind a desk, as you can probably tell. But the point is that if we can get up, we can get moving. We can get the endorphins flowing, we get the blood flowing. When we sleep, our intervertebral discs shorten, so everything gets very tight.
So at least when we move more, we create more fluid, more lubricant. So therefore our joints, our bodies just tend to move better. So that's why we always go back to say, always movement over anything else.
Lucia Knight: Love it, love it. Now, something I've been thinking about for a little while, and I know you talk about this, so you can answer this question.
Exercise vs. Training
Lucia Knight: What is the difference? between training and exercise.
Jon Field: When we talk about exercise versus training, training has a stimulus behind it.
Whereas exercise is done as a I would probably say a bit more of a habit. So let's say I want to go and walk the dog. That there is not training. I want to go and I Zumba. I do legs, bums and tums. I go and do body pump, whatever it might be that people doing in, in the big commercial gyms, that tends to be exercise.
It's not training. Training is something that has a stimulus to it. something that will give you a carryover into everyday life. You could say exercise does the same, but actually if you're going for a walk versus the everyday functional movements, strength training is going to give you a much better carryover Then going in for a walk or have no form of structure within your training.
So if you are an exerciser, which might be someone who does go down the gym, jumps on a bike, jumps on a treadmill, does all those things, that is not training. That's not because there's no necessarily accountability with it. There's no growth with it unless you're going in week after week and knowing exactly how many miles you did the week before and how you progress all that.
Essentially. Training is a progressive overload. So we look at nervous system overload and the carry over the training can give you versus your exercise. Now, training should be tracked. It should be monitored. It should be written down. So therefore you know everything that you're doing when it comes to training.
You wouldn't need to write in your exercise log book that I went for a four minute walk last week. This week I'm going to try and do five. It just doesn't work that way. We just go and we move. Whereas training has to have a stimulus. It has to have, a carryover into everyday life. It has to be a different form of stimulus, so therefore it has to attack the nervous system.
It has to essentially rip muscles, repair muscles. There's much more to it, whereas exercise is probably what I would say 70 to 80 percent of people do every day. They don't necessarily train. So to me, I would always train over exercise.
Lucia Knight: Okay. So it feels like the people who are listening to this in their forties, fifties and sixties.
Yeah. So they may have been exercising, but we're trying to, we're trying to get better at training. I guess the question that comes to my mind is.
Its Never Too Late to Start Training
Lucia Knight: Is it ever too old to start this kind of training?
Jon Field: There is a very simple answer to that. Absolutely not. When it comes back to the first thing that you asked me, which is movement over medicine, right?
So at any point in your life, you should still be able to move. If you're in that point where you can't move, then obviously that's a little bit of a different beast, but generally there's never too late. And our average age that we train here is between 52 and 55. That's what I
Lucia Knight: I think is crazy, which is exactly why I've invited you on, because that is not normal in the UK.
Jon Field: That was part of the goal that we had was to put a, an impact on people's lives and people at a stage of their life where they want to make that change. A lot of people try and make a change when it's not the right time for them. And to me, it's so important to have a, a why at the end of it, a goal at the end of it.
And that's why the training at a later age is again, this nervous system stimulation. They give you this, carry over. So you're going to work against the natural trend of osteoporosis even down to dementia. Now, things like that, the importance of training at any age is only going to be beneficial than detrimental.
The only thing I would say is if you are in a position where you have certain specific needs that you may have, you have to be guided by a professional. That's really, really important. So when you are starting a fitness journey at the age of 50. Then be guided by a fitness professional. Don't be guided necessarily by your friend who's been doing it for years.
Go and get some advice. Be sensible about what you do. We've got clients that started their journey at 50. They're now 70 and they're absolutely smashing it. And they're one of the fittest people in the gym.
Lucia Knight: So it's never too late to start this kind of training.
Practical Tips for Desk Workers to Move More
Lucia Knight: I guess I just want to know if there's people sitting listening here and they are stuck in that on a work treadmill rather than an exercise treadmill or a training weightlifting scenario, can you just give them a little hope in the form of a couple of tiny starter recommendations for people who do feel somewhat stuck at their desks or at least that their work is hindering them?
Where can they start this week?
Jon Field: Easy. First thing, what do we say? Move regularly. So movement is medicine. Get up, get down, if you can, maybe every half an hour, 45 minutes, go and get some water, walk back. Simple, really easy one to do. Set up your ergonomics. Again, really important. So making sure your desk is at the right height, making sure you're sitting at the right position.
You haven't got the forward head posture. You're not rounding in this position. So being very much, being very much aware of how you're sitting is really, really important. Hydration and nutrition at your desk. Make sure you get up and go and get your nutrition. Get up and go and get your water.
Don't have it in the bag and just bring it out and sit on top of your desk. Get up. Even if you went in to go outside for two to five minutes, get some fresh air, have a bite to eat, come back, keep moving. You will often find yourself. You sat there for literally hours and then suddenly it's I haven't moved for three hours.
My God. Make that happen. Some mindful breaks, getting back to that same thing again, taking a bit of time to just get off the desk, have a walk around just for a couple of minutes. And I've even put in here about having a tennis ball or a football under your desk. And you can roll the football back and forth under your feet, so it keeps your joints moving under your desk.
You're keeping your knees mobile, your ankles mobile, and it just helps to activate the nervous system and give you a bit of a carryover into your brain, so it doesn't get too dead while you're just sitting, zooming in at a screen.
Lucia Knight: If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy my Life Satisfaction Assessment. It's a 30 minute program where I guide you through a deep dive into 10 areas of your life to assess what's bringing you joy and what's bringing you down. I call it Derailed It's a fabulous place to begin a joy at work redesign.
