Five-minute sweat sessions to keep you active while working from home

It’s important to take breaks during the workday, but while staying at home—without your usual coffee destination to walk to—it can be hard to incorporate activity into your work-from-home routine. 

Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine PhD student Brandyn Powelske and alumni Sunny Deol and Robert Heimbach have joined together to assemble some simple stretches and a “five-minute sweat session” that can be done at home during a quick break. The three physiotherapists shared their exercise ideas with viewers across Canada in the latest episode of Rehab Med Live this afternoon. 

“We’ve made things very easy, and there’s no equipment necessary. We tried to make this really fun to do, with a stretching program and a HIIT activity,” says Deol. “These workouts could each be completed two to three times a day.” HIIT, or High Intensity Interval Training, is an exercise strategy which alternates short bursts of intense exercise with short recovery periods. 

In addition to the five-minute sweat session, viewers learned a series of stretches that can easily be done during the day as part of a strategy for staying well and pain-free while working from home. 

All three presenters are not only graduates—and in Brandyn’s case, a current student—but are regular volunteers with the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, and with this presentation have found a new way to share their time. “We want to help keep individuals safe and healthy when working from home,” explains Deol. 

Rehab Med Live is a series of live-streamed presentations designed to connect the public with the expertise of the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine’s faculty and alumni. For more information on upcoming sessions, visit bit.ly/RehabMedLive.