Steamy session? here's how to avoid a red-face in the office after a workout

There’s no need to get in a sweat over a workout in your lunchbreak, says Joshi Herrmann
So little time: integrating exercise into the working day has obvious challenges pertaining to sweat, smell and time (Picture: Getty)
Joshi Herrmann12 January 2015

It’s inconvenient that January, the time of year we are most likely to try our hands at a fitness programme, features very cold and dark evenings — and lots of other people trying to do the same. Gym floors that are left to small groups of aggressive, grunting, ill-proportioned blokes from IT Support in August are, in the few weeks after the new year, briefly filled with flabby creatures peering nervously at the instruction sticker on the ab-crunch machine.

I know a couple of guys who spend a serious chunk of their lives in various central London gun dungeons, and they know that in January you have to avoid hitting the gym during the usual after-work slot, and instead go before work or at lunchtime.

Many central London gyms now open from 6.30am, easily allowing most workers to get a few sets in before work. The early starters on foreign-exchange desks and in City law firms are often lucky enough to have gyms in the bowels of their offices. I often see one of the Standard’s senior editors (whose days start at 6.30am) sloping off to the office gym at lunchtime, towel flipped ostentatiously over his shoulder.

But integrating exercise into the working day has obvious challenges pertaining to sweat, smell and time. Based on extensive interviews with fitness experts, gym monkeys and time-management gurus, here are five handy tips.

Air not water

Some gyms now have “air showers” to help cool punters down. A spokesman for Fitness First, which has them in changing rooms, says they lower body temperature and aid the evaporation of sweat, cooling you down quicker than a cold shower.

Sprint not marathon

Fortunately, interval training — doing short bursts of exercise that will increase your heart rate quickly — is in vogue at the moment, and some experts contend that a few minutes of intense running or cycling can burn as much fat as half an hour of jogging. According to a study two years ago, two million British workers use their lunch hour to run but keeping those runs short (with intervals of sprinting) is the smart way.

Use ice

A study by the University of Ottawa recently found that exercisers who drank ice-cold water while pumping sweated less than those who drank warmer water, because the thermoreceptors in your abdomen help your brain to regulate your sweat output, and contact with the ice persuades them that you are cooler than you are.

Eat after

Wait until after your workout to have lunch because eating immediately before exercise isn’t much use. Eat protein-rich foods afterwards to aid muscle growth and give you cool- down time, and try to choose cold meals rather than hot food.

Corpsing

Lunchtime or morning yogis rely on the Shavasana exercise, otherwise known as the corpse pose — lying flat on the floor and relaxing into the ground — to wind down after exercise. It decreases heart rate and perspiration, gets blood pressure down and releases muscle tension.

Water up

Exercising straight after sleeping means doing two dehydrating activities in succession, so make sure you drink water before a morning gym session. Your mental acuity and muscle growth will suffer if you don’t.

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