With the end of the semester barreling ever closer with each passing day, one may find themselves in a similar dilemma as I have, of wanting that “beach bod” but also needing to spend those crucial free hours working to finance those summer adventures and activities.
In my two years of employment in retail, I have experienced both those “crazy rushes” and “grueling lulls” between customers, where you’re stocking to keep busy or cleaning your register because you cannot find anything else that needs to be done. Well, fear not my fellow "Baywatch" wannabes, for I have come up with some simple yet worthy workouts that can be done at your register, around the store and even on break.
1. The register “bench dip.”
It’s similar to a traditional bench drip, but instead of having a “bench,” you use the register table and keep your feet on the ground.
2. Stocking squats.
This is pretty simple and self-explanatory. Take the item out of the box or carriage, lower yourself down into a squat position and then move out of squat to stock the merchandise.
3. Down-time calf raises.
When you’re at your register waiting for the next wave of customers to come to the front, become a “regiSTAR,” and try to do about 25 to 30 calf raises between each shopper.
4. “Running the floor.”
Move. Move. Move. In retail especially, there are always things to be put away, customers to help and store work to be done. All of these can be accomplished with a little bit of cardio.
5. Cashing-out curls.
Is someone buying multiple half-gallon water bottles or a bag of cat litter? Curl that thing as you scan, carefully curling and uncurling the product to scan the barcode and tone those arms!
6. Break room business.
From personal experience, I've found that these short minutes in the break room have been critical moments of peace, away from forever-frenzied masses.
However, there have been days where the post-lunch rush and “dealing with the public” became too much to bear. Even the quite break room cannot fix my bad mood.
If this becomes the case, sometimes the only thing left to do is to just dance it out. Turn on your favorite song, twist the volume all the way up and just dance.
Although these workouts may not lead to the results one may experience with regular exercise and a healthy diet, they are a start to the lifestyle, and a small replacement when making it to the gym just isn't possible after that long shift. So while earning money on that daily grind, get in that gym grind, too!