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This is Tuesday, 2 PM. Just had a rice and curry lunch. You still have 3 hours of work to complete. Also, you won’t be able to keep your eyes open.
This is the time of day that people feel like taking a nap. And if you work from home in Colombo, you know it well. It strikes after lunch, goes to rest hard, and the following two hours are the longest part of your working day.
For most, it’s a second cup of tea they turn to. Some put their eyes to sleep for a couple of minutes. Some check their phones to give them a break.
But a number of Colombo’s remote workers have found another solution. They then get up and step onto a flat platform similar in size to a yoga mat and take a leisurely stroll as they finish up their afternoon chores. And the dip in the market is almost instant.
The walking pad is this one. And it’s subtly influencing the way Sri Lankans working remotely think about movement, energy and daily health.
The Afternoon Slump is a problem that affects a lot of people
It’s not laziness; it’s the afternoon dip in energy. It is biology.
Your blood sugar increases rapidly after eating a high-carbohydrate meal such as a typical Sri Lankan rice and curry meal. Insulin is secreted by your body to control it. The blood sugar subsequently decreases. And when it decreases, your energy decreases. Your brain gets less glucose. Body temperature drops slightly. Your alertness fades. The whole setup is calling for a break!
That’s why the afternoon lullabies rarely occur after a protein-based meal, and after a heavy lunch they are much more common. The food is causing the crash.
The best way to break this cycle is to get moving. Through muscle activity, the demand for glucose is taken out of the bloodstream and before the crash. Slow walking (2-3 km/h) sustains your leg muscles at sufficient levels to help mitigate the blood sugar surge after the meal and the ensuing energy crash.
It is not a theory; it is a fact. Researchers have found that walking for 10-15 minutes after eating can lower the post-meal spike in blood sugar by 20-30 percent, as opposed to sitting in one place after eating. It is one of the most powerful daily habits for remote workers who have a rice-based lunch every day while sitting at their workstations.
Why Gym Memberships Aren’t the Solution for Remote Workers
The obvious answer to being sedentary is a gym membership. Go in the morning. Train hard. Come home. Work.
This is a concept that, in principle, is very good. In reality, for the remote workers of Colombo, it is hard to withstand real life.
Morning gym = get up early enough to exercise, shower, and get to work by 9 AM. A gym is 20 minutes away by car in the rush hour at 10 AM, but 45 minutes away at 7 AM. Those sessions which were thought to be doable in January somehow disappear by March when a project deadline is around the corner, or a child gets sick, or the energy just isn’t around at 5:30 AM.
And the gym membership answers one question: exercise, but not the other: what is the problem here, if anything, is that Sri Lankan remote workers spend 8 to 10 hours sitting every day, with one hour of exercise in the morning.
This is becoming more and more evident in research. 10 hours of sitting is not offset by 1 hour of exercise. The health dangers of sitting for long periods of time are not just a function of exercise; as sitting itself is a constant process throughout the day, exercising one block at a time will not be able to undo the damage.
The walking pad is the solution to the problem. It does not mean sitting less before or after work, as it is sitting more in the middle of the day.
This is how a walking pad is actually going to work in a Sri Lankan Apartment
A walking pad is a flat, frame-less treadmill belt that has a small motor. It is not tall, does not have side handles, and folds completely flat so it can fit under a sofa or bed. It’s designed specifically to be walked slowly (typically 1-6 km/hr).
It’s on the ground in front of your laptop or monitor in a Colombo apartment. You are standing at a slightly elevated surface (counter, raised desk, laptop stand) and moving slowly while at work.
Most people will find the practical set-up to be less complicated than they would think. The regular laptop stand/monitor riser will cost 1,500 to 4,000 LKR and will lift your monitor to standing eye level. In front is a walking pad that is lying on the ground. You walk in, put the speed on 2 km per hour and keep working.
This is about the same pace as walking at. It won’t interfere with the typing. You speak smoothly on the phone. You are firmly focused on where you want to be. However, your leg muscles are used, blood is flowing, and blood sugar is regulated automatically through the use of simple exercise.
Getting in 10,000 steps without pulling out your phone or calendar
Ten thousand steps seems like a lot of steps to take. When a walking pad is used strategically by a person working at a distance from the machine, it becomes nearly automatic.
A walking pad can help you get 4,000 to 5,000 steps in 60 minutes, at a pace of 2.5 kilometres per hour. You’re hitting half of your daily goal from one session while on the phone or in your emails anyway.
For employees who work remotely, walking is best during those times of the day that involve listening, but not much thinking. Team stand-up calls. Webinars. Recorded training sessions. One-way information calls. These are the times of the day when you’re not creating, but receiving ideas and information. These are the low-cognition times of the day when your brain is taking in ideas and information, but not producing any. Slow strolling during these calls is free of productivity loss and adds up the steps you can get throughout the day.
If you need to write answers, present, or think actively, get off the pad and stand or sit. The machine’s at your service when you need them and not at your beck and call when you don’t.
The typical walking pad work day for a remote worker in Colombo is the following. Twenty minutes on the pad before your first call, to warm up and get rid of the morning stiffness. Thirty minutes stroll while you’re on your mid-afternoon calls. Another 40 minutes after lunch during a time when the drops in energy typically occur. 20 minutes late in the afternoon to complete the steps. That’s 120 minutes of walking, undetected throughout your day at work, and accomplished without a single exercise period, without a single person counting on their pedometer.
What’s for Shopping and What’s Not in Sri Lanka
There’s been a swift expansion of the Daraz walking pad sector, and not every product is created the same way. The factors that really matter when it comes to choosing one for a Colombo apartment setup.
If you live in an apartment building, noise is the most important. Costly motors vibrate less and are quieter as they transmit vibrations through concrete floors to neighbours below. Read the Daraz reviews section for noise comments. The quieter brushless motor versions are more expensive, but are a worthwhile upgrade in an apartment setting.
The minimum length of the belt is determined by 100cm for a natural stride. Shorter belts require taking tiny steps, uncomfortable steps after 20 minutes, and strain on knees over time.
Motor power should be specified in terms of 1.5 hp continuous duty, not peak power (which is a different and misleading number). Continuous duty rating is the actual performance over extended periods of time that a remote worker will make use of it.
The mid-range cars from 25,000 to 45,000 LKR were found to be good value for money and convenient for everyday use. Basic models below 20,000 LKR work well in the short term but begin to have issues once used for 60-90 minutes per day.
The Bottom Line
There is no such thing as an afternoon slump. It’s not the sedentary work-from-home lifestyle, for long. The answer is not to go to a gym, to commute for hours, or to make time in a busy day for extensive exercise.
The walking pad is used while working at the standing desk, during calls and during the low activity periods, transforming the most sedentary time to the most productive. It controls blood sugar levels. It does away with the afternoon slump. It doesn’t add anything to your daily list of things to do; it just increases your steps.
That’s the reason why the remote workers in Colombo are deciding to switch their work. Not because walking pads are a trend; it’s because they’re a solution to the problem!
“No, sitting is no break from work. It’s the one thing that makes work more difficult. Get off your seat, step in and let your body take care of the rest; your mind will follow.”
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