Remote and hybrid workers: the gym as your midday break

Working from home gives you back the time you spent driving, but it also takes away the walk to the car, the stairs at the office and the trip to a colleague's desk. On a busy home day you can go from breakfast to evening without leaving one room.

WHO's 2020 guidelines advise adults to limit the time they spend sedentary, which for desk workers mostly means sitting, and say that replacing it with activity of any intensity, light activity included, brings health benefits. A gym session in the middle of a home day does two jobs at once: it trains you, and it breaks up the longest stretch of sitting.

Most of your sessions will start from home, so judge a gym by that trip first. Then read RPM's membership tiers and ask which sections and hours your tier covers, because you will use the gym at times office workers rarely see.

On a home day nobody sees you leave, and nobody waits for you to look presentable afterwards. That makes the middle of the day the easiest slot a hybrid worker has, as long as you protect it.

• Book the gym in your work calendar as a busy block, at the same time on each home day, so colleagues book around it.
• Put calls that need your camera before the break, and leave the hour after it for work you can do alone.
• Leave the house already changed and freshen up at home afterwards, so the session needs only parking, a locker and the floor.
• Make lunch the night before and eat it at your desk when you get back.
• If a meeting lands on the slot, move the session to your next home day rather than dropping it.

Midday is often calmer than the after-work rush, though some gyms see a small lunchtime bump. If you head back to an office instead of home, the lunch-hour minute plan times each step of that tighter trip.

From May to September, the middle of the day is the hottest time to be outside. Park in shade or in a covered car park at both ends, carry water, and move the session to early morning or evening on the worst days.

Office days already carry a commute, and training on top of it is where hybrid routines usually fall apart. Count these days as optional, and choose one of three shapes:

• Before you leave: a 30-minute session from home, if your office day starts late enough.
• On the way back: only if the gym sits on the route home, so the session replaces some of the traffic rather than adding to it.
• Rest: often the right call on a day with a long drive at each end, and it keeps your legs fresh for the next home-day session.

If you are torn between a gym by the office and one by home, weighing work against home counts the sessions each one catches. For most people with more home days than office days, home wins.

The gym covers three or four hours a week. The rest of a home day is still spent mostly at a desk, so add small breaks that need no kit:

• Stand or walk around the room for calls that do not need a screen.
• Use the stairs in your building rather than the lift once or twice a day.
• Do a set of squats or a short stretch whenever you refill your water.
• Walk after work in the cooler months, or in an air-conditioned mall or corridor in summer.

If your back, neck or wrists ache from your desk set-up, see a doctor or physiotherapist rather than training through it.

• A trip from home you will make three times a week, at midday, in July.
• Parking you can count on during the working day, ideally in the building.
• Opening hours that cover the middle of the day as well as early mornings and evenings, so office days still have an option.
• Somewhere to get ready, in case an afternoon video call comes up at short notice.
• People to see. Working from home can mean days without meeting anyone, and a regular class or a coach you see weekly adds some company to the week.

RPM is one club, on Level 4 of AD HUB Sports Complex in Al Manhal, with free on-site parking at AD HUB and a lift up to the floor, so a midday session involves no hunt for a street space. It opens early in the morning and closes late in the evening, with shorter Friday hours.

The grooming hub has a vanity area with hairdryers and products for a call straight after training. Women can use the women-only Ladies section, with its own strength and cardio equipment and the Pilates studio, and men train in the Mixed section. Group classes run in both sections, though the timetable changes, so ask what runs at midday. Engine adds coached programming if you want a plan written for your home days.

Where it may not fit: if you live on the far side of a bridge from Al Manhal, the midday trip may cost more time than the session is worth, and a gym on your own side will see you more often. Prices are not published online, so ask for them, and book a free guided tour at midday on a home day to see the floor at your hour.