Hands up all of you who have fitness or dieting on your 2019 resolution list… yep me too! I really do have to get on track with it. I do have a gym membership, but it would seem I am more of a silent partner, quietly contributing to their cash flow as opposed to being an active member who uses any of the facilities beyond the cafe.
I was a real gym bunny not too long ago. I had all the cute workout clothes, a special bag to put it all in and even the matching water bottle, but then something seemed to happen. I am not sure what, I mean it wasn’t anything profound or life changing, it was just like life and work got in the way and I just stopped going. I told myself I was taking a short break, just a couple of days off to rest and recoup. Then before I knew it, I hadn’t been for a few weeks, then a few months, it just built up to be an unintentional year-long break. Once in a while I would feel bad and go do a hardcore session that resulted in needing five days to recover from the chub-rub induced by the exercise bike and once again a few weeks, then months would go by. Sadly, I seem to have spent most of 2018 in that fashion, unable to break out of the routine.
So, like many others I have elected to get back on track this coming year, firstly by going back to the gym and secondly by working a bit more exercise into my day, outside of the dog walk that is. Like any self-respecting person who is on a mission, my first job was to browse Pinterest in search of some work-day exercise inspiration, during which, I found a post about the best jobs to keep you fit.
Ignoring the fitness instructor and personal trainer roles because well, that’s just obvious and technically they had to be fit to start with. Beyond those two, did you know that working in a warehouse is way up there in the ranks for the best jobs to keep you fit? It’s, right alongside Postman.
We all could have predicted the Postman one, that’s a no brainer, everyone knows how much they walk, but I didn’t even think of a warehouse worker. I was astounded to read that a warehouse worker can walk 18 miles a day just picking items as part of their normal job.
So if they work a standard 8-hour shift, let’s take away an hour for lunch and comfort breaks , we are left with 7 active hours of walking potential. Holy cow! Being a geek about it, we can work that out to walking at an average speed of 2.6 miles an hour. Now a brisk walking pace is thought of as 3 miles an hour so at only marginally less it would suggest that a warehouse worker is buzzing around the warehouse floor at quite a pace.
Continuing the geek line, looking at the average person (awful term I know, what is average after all, but let’s say for these purposes, an average person is a mid-height, mid-weight human) around 100 calories are burned for every mile walked. Therefore, at the standard 18 miles that can be walked in a shift, 1800 calories are potentially burned a day, in addition to the calories you burn from just being alive. What are they eating at lunch to provide enough energy for this? I am adding that topic to a future post shortlist as we speak.
Warehouses must be full of super fit workers, like an elite force of power walkers don’t you think! If you are thinking that this may just be the answer to all of your new year dieting prayers, you can be sure that after you have worked out the kinks, learned to love the leg cramps and indulged in some major blister care for a few weeks you will soon be zipping around the warehouse floor and asking for a smaller uniform. Maybe you could then create the ultimate warehouse workout dvd instead of the ones pedalled by celebrities? Now that is one dvd I would buy.
I wonder if anyone has tracked their miles or steps? I would love to know if they have been issued pedometers as part of the uniform. When I had a fitness tracker attached to my wrist, I used to set my step target at 10,000 a day, this included all steps taken in the day and throughout the evenings. I was always super chuffed when I hit my self imposed target, but now this actually seems a little less impressive when you think that walking 18 miles would equate to around 36,000 steps!
To summarise, walking 18 miles a day at just below a brisk pace, taking 36,000 steps and burning 1800 calories a day should, I hope, qualify all warehouse workers for exceptionally comfy shoes, an unlimited supply of free food in the canteen and a daily foot massage thrown in for good measure.
