Not Just a Man's World

Having now given you some tips on both nutrition and workouts for the office, here are some tips on clothing.

For my office I am required to dress in “smart casual”.  What this really means is “reasonably smart, with a suit when meeting clients, but otherwise you can get away with a smart pair of trousers or a skirt paired with a smart jumper instead of a matching jacket”.  I find office clothing can be a nightmare since I don’t really properly fit anything that is available commercially and I am unwilling to pay large sums of money for something I will only wear at work.  Here’s how I deal with the problems.

9.     Take your shoes off
Do you find that smart office shoes are often tighter fitting than you would like?  I do all my workouts in bare feet or socks and spend my home life padding about in slippers, so I thoroughly dislike shoes squashing my feet back to “shoe-shape” again.  Slip your shoes off beneath your desk and press your feet flat into the floor (or a foot rest, if you need one).  Unless you suffer from cheesy feet, people won’t realise.  Just don’t forget to put your shoes back on to go anywhere!

10.     Alternate your heel heights
I know.  Wearing heels is bad for you.  I’m sure I’m not alone though in wanting to enjoy that womanly swing of the hips and tight firming of the calves that they can add.  Especially if I’ve decided to wear a knee-length skirt for the day.  I get round the problem by slipping my heels off whenever possible (standing by the water machine to fill all those sports bottles, sat at my desk, and even in the cubicle where I do my hip flexor stretches and scapular wall-slides).  And I always wear flat shoes the day after I have worn heels to stretch my calf muscles out again.

11.     Try before you buy
Work shirts are a nightmare if you’ve been working out hard and have the figure to prove it.  Unless you want to pay out a lot of money on tailored shirts you may well find they are either too tight across the shoulders or too baggy at the waist.  I’ve learnt to always concentrate on the shoulder fitting and make do with the waist fitting (if it’s really baggy then I won’t buy it).  Here’s the actions I work through in the changing room:-  Do a horizontal pushing action away from you (as if you were doing a bench press, but standing up). 
-  From there, take your arms up and out in a wide arc.
-  Finally, push your fists back together in front of you whilst letting the shoulder blades drift outwards, making your back as wide as possible. If the shirt restricts the movement anywhere or rubs, especially in the armpits, ditch it.

12.     Choose a skirt over trousers
If you can’t easily do a squat to parallel in the changing room when buying your trousers then it is likely that the seat of the trousers will cause your pelvis to tuck under when sat for long periods of time (to avoid the seam putting pressure on your clitoris for a long time).  Whilst you can try to counteract this, you can’t spend every moment you are at work thinking about the angle of your pelvis and after a while it can really hurt anyway.  A skirt has been my solution, since I just don’t look smart in looser ‘smart’ trousers and my work requirement is that I look smart.  Of course, if you are able to find suitable trousers, then go ahead.

In part four there will be some final life-survival tips for getting by in the office and making sure you can still fit in that workout.

Related posts:

1. 15 Ways to Survive a Desk Job – Part 2 (workouts)
2. 15 Ways to Survive a Desk Job – Part 1 (food and drink)
3. 15 Ways to Survive a Desk Job – Part 4 (general survival)