I am letting a good friend of mine take over Life of an Architect today. Her name is Alexandra Williams and she, along with twin sister Kymberly, are normally found at the helm of their own website Fun and Fit: Q and A with K and A. I asked Alexandra to write a post specific to architects who spend too much time sitting in front of their computer monitor getting doughy and lethargic. She and her sister are ridiculously over-qualified to write on my site, but I find them entertaining and grudgingly realize that I tend to learn things when I read what they have to teach.

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So I was stalking thinking of Bob the other day as I wandered through his office (okay, in a virtual way. I’d never be in Texas voluntarily), and it occurred to me that architects need to move around a bit more. They just sit hunched all day, talking on the phone (1-900-HOT-CHIX) staring at the computer (Facebook’s “Farm Town”), and making mini-forts on their desks with T-Squares and orange triangles!

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What happens to poor old Bob and his friends (yeah, right) colleagues? They get weak abs, rounded shoulders and upper backs, and are at increased risk for metabolic syndrome from all that sitting. That’s bad enough, but look what happened to Bob after too much desk sitting:

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Bob - Before and After

He seized up! But I am here to rescue him (and his colleagues) from Architect Atrophy! Some hot fitness tips are as follows:

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1. I happen to know that Bob’s desk is 20′ long and that he has a crapload many heavy and gorgeous magazines on it. Heavy and gorgeous is a great way to describe magazines, but not crazed Norweegie guys with premature white hair architects, so shove all those glossies onto the floor (which counts as exercise), lie down on your back on the desk, and let your right arm and leg dangle over the edge. Then switch and do the left side. This will open you up to ridicule at the hip flexors and chest/shoulders. For a bonus, pick the magazines back up and rip them in half before replacing them on the desk. For as many minutes as it takes for your boss to sic her dog on you for being weird at work.

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2. Get out of your comfy napping specifications reading chair and shake your groove thang! All those CMU blocks just sitting in the corner? Those aren’t samples; those are amazing bits of exercise equipment! At 7 5/8″ tall, they are the perfect height for climbing up and down, up and down. You’ll be able to climb around on concrete form work with confidence!

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Or, you could do this with a lucky volunteer sales rep or annoying client (your choice):

Smashing CMU Blocks

The point is, move around a bit more.

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3. So, stretch the front, move more and ta ta da ta! Strengthen your upper and mid-back. I could be the fitness pro that my resume says I am and suggest this exercise, but that is not as exciting as recommending you grab a few product manuals in your hands and do a row (which essentially means do a rowing motion and try to bring your shoulder blades together in back. Actually, get a few office mates in and let them do the work while you just shout “come on slackers” encouraging, helpful advice!

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These rubber bands are for rolling up drawings and shooting someone's eye out, not the right size...

4.  I’m going to mention stretching again. I happen to have it on good authority that Bob engages in rubber band “stretching and flinging” in the back room (Bob squealed on himself). So, rather than taking out colleagues’ eyes (or his own), Bob would be much better off using a very large rubber band to open up his chest for viewing to reverse the effects of slouching at his desk.

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5. And a final stretch for hip flexors and quads, which is beautifully illustrated below by the cutest model you ever saw, and “some guy.”
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Photo credits: Creative Commons, Photobucket and Bob Borson

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