Workout at the Office

Quick Workouts coverQuick Workouts: Fitness Anytime, Anywhere
Time-Life Books
1987

Submitter: This book is currently on the shelves at a local public library.  Who knew people in the 1980’s were so busy that they had to fit in exercise while waiting for the commuter train or even an elevator?  I guess I just assumed that they stayed fit & trim by lifting over-sized mobile phones.  While a book on this topic could be useful to our modern day inactive office workers, it would really need updated pictures… it’s hard to take a good stretching technique seriously when the demonstrator is wearing giant should pads or a sleeveless sweater.

Holly: If you need me, I’ll be bench pressing the PDR, or maybe the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. That one’s got a good heft to it too. (After which, I will NOT look anything like these people. I’ll be all sweaty and red-faced.)

 

knee lift

books as weights

side bend

elevator workouts

15 comments

  1. Mr. Red Vest looks a little like a can-can dancer. If nothing else, these exercised would provide much amusement to one’s fellow workers.

  2. 1987 was early for mobile phones, even large ones. Answering machines were just becoming common at that time.
    I do remember a sort of “exercise while you work” mini-craze back then, especially with isometrics. In the 1980s, we just gave in to the idea of working ALL the time, and having no other life.

  3. Yeah, there’s no way doing that in the library workroom would lead to strange looks and smothered giggling; no way at all.

  4. My workplace just started a healthier living initiative and we’ve actually been looking in to things like this. I almost want to get this because the pictures are so outdated that it would at least be good for a little chuckle.

  5. Dig those PC-free offices from the olden days. Even the latest laptop isn’t heavy enough to replace a dictionary as a substitute dumbbell… Another victory for books!

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