Experts agree the best time to exercise is midmorning or midday, when testosterone and general energy levels peak. But if you’re like most of us, that’s smack in the middle of your workday. So, do you relegate your workouts to sub-peak hours? Quit your job and go freelance so you can control your schedule? Not necessary, says Tom Seabourne, tae kwon do champion, TV host and author of 16 books. His latest book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Quick Total Body Workouts, is based on an appealing premise: You can work out every part of your body right at your desk.

“Everyone can find a few minutes a few times a day to get a quick full-body workout,” argues Seabourne. “You’ve got to get your blood pumping and get out of your seat.” By focusing on fast-twitch, Type IIB muscle fibers, Seabourne’s program will “increase your anaerobic and aerobic power, get your blood flowing, burn additional calories and help to energize your day,” he says. That’s not a bad set of outcomes, but perhaps an even more compelling argument for workplace workouts is the slate of recent studies showing that sitting for long periods of time can wreak havoc on your health -- even if you exercise regularly before or after work.

Below are 12 exercises that together will give you a total body workout, whether you have your own office or sit in a cubicle. Admittedly, a few of them may raise some eyebrows, depending on your office culture, but many can be done without anyone being the wiser. And even if your co-workers snicker at first, when they see the results -- both on your body and in your level of productivity -- they’ll be lining up at your desk for tips.

1. Swap out your core-killing office chair for a Swiss ball. Even better, if you have the means and your boss is laid back about such things, attach your computer to an exercise bike.

2. Pace back and forth while on the phone. If you have your own office, get a long cord and use the extent of it. If you’re in a cube and pacing would bother your co-workers, then march in place.

3. Do 45-degree planks on your desk while reading. First, bend your arms at a 90-degree angle and place your forearms on your desk. Then step backwards to form a plank from your shoulders to your ankles. Contract your core and hold for 30 seconds.

4. Drop a pencil and do some push-ups -- a couple of max sets (go to fatigue, generally 10 to 25 reps) a day, two to three times a week. Notice how quickly you’re able to increase your reps.

5. Do some dips in your chair before sitting down. With your heels on the ground, hands on the chair arms, and both legs straight and pointed away from you, lower yourself to the chair by bending your arms until your elbows reach a 90-degree angle. Then push back up for five to 15 reps. (If you’ve already swapped your chair for a Swiss ball, sit on the edge of your desk with a straight back, curl your hands around that same edge and place your calves on the ball, legs straight. Slide your butt away from the desk so your hips can descend toward the ground. That’s your starting position for the dip.)

6. Do squats while on a conference call. Keep doing them until you begin to lose your form or the call ends. Or until you start to talk funny.

7. Press your heels into the floor while typing. This easy and discreet move trains your quads, glutes and hams isometrically.

8. Pump your arms as fast as you can, like you’re sprinting. Go for 15 seconds, adding two seconds a week until you can do a full-minute arm-sprint.

9. Place a ball between your knees and squeeze. Do three sets of 10, and hold for three seconds per rep.

10. Do heel raises at the water cooler/fountain. Fifteen reps twice a day will work your calf muscles.

11. Do two-arm biceps curls while staring at your computer screen. Leave two (cheap) dumbbells at work and do two sets of 10 reps every other day. Bring heavier weights to the office as you get stronger.

12. Similarly, do dumbbell shoulder presses in front of your computer. Start with two sets of 10 reps and increase the weight as you get stronger.

Whether you’re unemployed, underemployed, fearful of a layoff or just bored with your job, at some point you’ve probably thought about starting your own business. And like most people, you’ve probably been held back by a host of concerns: whether your idea is good enough, how to get funding, whether you can live without vacation and medical benefits, whether you even have the chops. Now, there’s one more worry to add to the mix: whether it’s crazy to start a business in the wake of a recession.

Here’s the good news. First, all entrepreneurs face those same fears on the road to building a company. Second, many Fortune 500 corporations, including Procter & Gamble, IBM, General Motors and FedEx, were founded during a period of economic uncertainty. “If you launch your business during a difficult time, you know what you can do on a lean basis,” says James King, state director of New York’s Small Business Development Center. Then once the economy starts to bounce back, he says, you’ll be well-positioned to succeed.

We asked King and Rex Hammock, founder of SmallBusiness.com and CEO of the custom media and marketing firm Hammock Inc. -- based in Nashville, Tenn. -- what it really takes to stop working for the man and become your own boss.

Tip No. 1: Seek input.

For starters, you should run your business concept past a few impartial observers before pouring your whole self into it. “Family and friends are not going to give you an honest answer,” says King. And even if it is a great idea, you must remain open to the possibility that your better mousetrap simply might not catch on. If that turns out to be the case, adds King, be prepared to adjust and compensate.

Tip No. 2: Check yourself.
Feeling ready? Put yourself to the test. This online quiz, created by the Small Business Administration, will help you ascertain whether you truly have the drive, perseverance and skill set you’ll need to see your business succeed. Even if you don’t, the SBA offers tips on how to build those credentials. Take advantage of this advice before diving in.

Tip No. 3: Go it alone.
The simplest approach is a start-up with you as the sole employee. Says Hammock: “For consultants, contractors or freelancers, the opportunities are many. Companies are using contracted services to fill in gaps in their workforce.” Being an independent contractor often means you call your own shots and name your hours and fees. The downside is loss of vacation and medical benefits -- though there are ways around that. For medical coverage, seek out programs offered through industry member organizations or groups such as the Freelancers Union. You may have to forego vacations for a while, but once you have a solid client base, you should be able to afford a few weeks of unpaid leave.

Tip No. 4: Find financing.

Less simple, though not impossible, is the path for capital-intensive startups. Hammock warns that these are tough times for getting a loan. “Banks are requiring more personal guarantees and financial collateral than I’ve seen in my nearly 30 years of owning small businesses,” he says. But King claims it’s still doable. “The money is available,” he argues. “You just have to prove the case for it.”

How? Get your ducks in a row by putting together a solid business plan. If you’ve never written one and need direction, avail yourself of the largely free assistance of organizations such as the Small Business Development Center (or SBDC, which maintains help offices in every state in the U.S.). The better prepared you are, says King, the more likely it is that the major financial institutions will work with you.

Another prospective source of financing is credit unions, which picked up much of the small-business lending slack when big banks put on the brakes in the aftermath of the global financial meltdown. Depending on the amount of funding needed for your venture, you can also seek economic support from friends and family, from so-called angel investors or from venture capital firms.

Finally, King advises that you raise or borrow enough money to provide your fledgling company with adequate cushion funding. It may take you longer to turn a profit than you expect, and you don’t want to be left penniless mere months in.

Tip No. 5: Don’t super-size.
Once you’ve hung your shingle, avoid the temptation to grow too quickly. This is particularly true for companies that start making money sooner than expected. “Say you open a restaurant and it quickly becomes a hot spot,” posits King. Before you know it, you’re excitedly adding seating and staff. But chances are good that you’re merely experiencing a new-restaurant bump, and that customer traffic will soon come back down to earth. “If you misjudge that,” warns King, “it can be a disaster for your business.”

Tip No. 6: Beware of the competition.
When you do start to grow, competitors will likely appear where none existed before. “Someone else is going to try to replicate your success,” says King. He recommends going back to your business plan and adjusting it to respond to the new conditions. This will help you stay a step ahead of any changes that could affect your bottom line.

Tip No. 7: Focus on the right components.

The smaller you are, the more you’ll be building your new company’s reputation on the basis of two essential factors: quality and service. “Trying to compete in an arena where price is the only factor in your clients’ purchasing decisions is a train wreck waiting to happen,” says Hammock. “If you can help a customer or client be better at something they want to be better at, you’ve cracked the formula for long-term success.” In other words, make your clients look good, and you’ll look good too. And if that prospect doesn’t have you thinking about punching in your current job’s time card for the final time, nothing will.

 

What are the telltale signs that the time has come to leave your job? Take this Men’s Life Today test for a definitive answer to an age-old question: Should you stay or should you go?

1) Every Monday morning, as you ponder the workweek ahead, you pull out your iPod and put one particular track on repeat. Its title is:
a) “The Lazy Song” (Bruno Mars)

b) “Just Can’t Get Enough” (Black Eyed Peas)

c) “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” (Katy Perry)

d) “Forget You” -- and not the clean version (Cee Lo Green)

2) When you get in late, your boss:
a) Doesn’t notice, because he never strolls in before noon anyway.

b) Asks if everything’s OK, since you’re usually the first one in the office.

c) Pulls you aside and tells you not to let it happen again.

d) Screams that the next time you’re tardy with his dry cleaning, there will be hell to pay.

3) Your workplace attire consists of:
a) Bed head, baggy shorts and a pair of turquoise flip flops.

b) A three-piece suit, wing tips and a freshly sharpened pencil on the ready, tucked behind your ear.

c) An Oxford shirt, khakis, and -- for rare occasions -- a Kevlar vest.

d) An airport gift that reads: “My Boss Went to Sheboygan and All He Got Me Was this Lousy T-shirt.”

4) At lunchtime, you:
a) Drive home for a nap, followed by a little Angry Birds action, followed by another nap.

b) Eat at your desk to save time. Gotta love multitasking!

c) Bring your PB&J into the conference room and complain to your work buds about the idiots in accounting.

d) Fashion voodoo dolls of the CEO using paper clips and a bubble mailer.

5) On Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, you:
a) Teach the boss’s kids how to make faces on the photocopier and fax the laugh-out-loud results to their teachers.

b) Put together a gripping PowerPoint presentation on how working hard in school truly gets you places!

c) Advise every youngster you see to put off the real world by getting an MBA.

d) Call in sick. Having to be nice to your colleagues is bad enough; being nice to their kids is beyond your pay grade.

6) A typical day’s assignment is:
a) Assignment? I’m not sure I’m following you.

b) There is no typical. Every project that lands on your desk is more refreshing and interesting than the last.

c) Not anything to write home about, but at least you’ve got good dental.

d) So ludicrous and incomprehensible you wonder whether a lobotomized monkey thought it up.

7) When it comes time for the annual company picnic, you:
a) Remind me again of the difference between my job and an actual picnic?

b) Whip up some of your Aunt Sassy’s ambrosia for everyone to savor.

c) Bribe your significant other to join you and promise you won’t make her stay for the whole thing.

d) You mean that was yesterday? Darn! Now why did I write it down for next week?

8) Upon returning to the office after a week away, you …
a) Fire up your computer so you can surf do some research using your favorite websites: Facebook, YouTube and, of course, Men’s Life Today .

b) Run to your cube, eager to rifle through the contents of your inbox.

c) Linger by the water cooler, sharing -- with anyone who will listen -- the tales of the traveler’s checks you lost in Colonial Williamsburg.

d) Have 17,543 emails to answer. Of those, you count 16,876 marked “URGENT.”

SCORING
Calculate your answers according to the values assigned to each:

a = 1 point

b = 2 points

c = 3 points

d = 4 points

If you scored a total of…

8 to 12: Are you seriously getting paid to do what you do? Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, dude. Ride this one all the way to retirement!

13 to 19: Congratulations you worker bee, you! Sounds like you’re in a job that you were born to inhabit!

20 to 26: Your current means of earning a living might not be as exhilarating as driving racecars, but it sure ain’t ditch-digging, either. Since you never can be too sure, though, might as well dust off the old resume … just in case.

27 to 32: Get thee to a recruiter without delay. This job is making you miserable.

Last week, we talked to three U.S. Olympic hopefuls, all affiliated with the New York Athletic Club, about their training regimens. This week, we talk to them about the challenges of being Olympic-caliber athletes; what their individual sports demand of them; and how they motivate themselves to compete at such a high level.

Our athletes:

Jake Herbert, wrestler, age 26, from Naperville, Ill.; 2009 World Freestyle, silver medalist

Seth Kelsey, fencer, age 29, from Colorado Springs, Colo.; 2010 World Championships, silver medalist

Jarrod Shoemaker, triathlete, age 28, from Maynard, Mass.; 2008 Olympian, USA Triathlon 2010 Elite National Champion

 

MLT: What’s your biggest challenge as an Olympic athlete?

Kelsey: “It’s always a struggle to balance everything. I’m in the [Air Force] Reserves and work one weekend a month. I’m really fortunate in that my unit has been supportive of my Olympic dreams and working around my travel and training schedule.”

Shoemaker: “The biggest challenge is definitely balance. Training can’t become everything in your life.”

MLT: Name one thing about your sport that most people probably don’t know.

Herbert: “Olympic wrestling is different than high school or collegiate. In the Olympics, you could win -- or lose -- a match in 40 seconds.”

Shoemaker: “People hear triathlon, they think Iron Man. In that kind of really long-distance event, your goal is to stay under your anaerobic threshold -- basically to be as comfortable as possible for the time you have to be out there. In the Olympic triathlon, the distances are a little shorter, so our goal is to go hard. It’s all about power and speed.”

Kelsey: “Fencing is like a game of tag, except with sharp weapons.”

MLT: How do you perform your best when the pressure’s on?

Kelsey: “I’ll be a little nervous before competition, and that’s a good thing. It means I care. It’s when I’m not nervous that it’s time to worry. But I think one way to keep your poise during competition is by having a routine. Before each match, our warm-up is the same. Having a routine helps focus you.”

Shoemaker: “I know where I am, and I know there are still people better than me. So what motivates me is figuring out what I have to do to make myself that much better -- to achieve that small percentage of improvement I need to win that race.”

MLT: Do you have a quote that epitomizes your philosophy on training and competition, something that helps you stay motivated?

Kelsey: “I go with my favorite [paraphrased] quote from Teddy Roosevelt: ‘Ease in the present is due to great effort in the past.’ If you put in the hard work, you can make it look really easy.”

Herbert: “The one I like best I heard from Tom and Terry Brands, Olympic wrestlers and [University of] Iowa wrestling coaches: ‘You have to hate losing more than you love winning.’”

Shoemaker: “‘There is no such word as ‘can't’!’”

Photos: Courtesy of New York Athletic Club

To read what the men’s magazines say about it, you’d think buying a suit is like purchasing a car, warranting copious research, multiple store visits, the accompaniment of an experienced friend. And it can be like that -- if you want to spend thousands of dollars and look like a GQ photo shoot. But for most guys, it’s a much simpler proposition.

That said, there are a few essential pieces of know-how every first-time suit-buyer should have. To break it down for us, we spoke to David Alperin, a Brooklyn-based designer and owner of specialty men’s retailer Goose Barnacle, winner of the Best Menswear Award in New York Magazine’s 2011 Best of New York issue.

1. Pick Your Price
“I tell young people not to go for the cheapest suit,” says Alperin. “It’s not going to last, and in the long run you’ll get more out of something a little higher quality.” Alperin advises shopping at Club Monaco, J. Crew or Banana Republic, where you can find decent off-the-rack suits for $300 to $400 that won’t require too much tailoring.

2. Pick Your Color
“Everyone’s first suit should be a solid navy blue.” And after navy, Alperin suggests, gray. And then navy pinstripe and then gray pinstripe … and then you can start to experiment. Why all the navy and gray? Because they go with everything. And why navy first? Because it’s perceived to be the most professional. We don’t know why -- some things just are.

3. Pick Your Style
If you’re young, says Alperin, no pleats. “Pleats were designed for a heavier-set person, and they make you look a little frumpy.” Flat-front pants give a slimmer, cleaner look -- and who doesn’t want that? Cuffs are a personal decision, he adds, but “the rule of thumb is: if no pleats, no cuffs.”

As for jackets, either two-button or three-button is fine, but Alperin suggests sticking with the two-button option for your first suit -- mainly because there are more of them out there. “In terms of finding suits at everyday stores that are mid- to good quality, usually it’s going to have two buttons.”

4. Pick Your Weight
As with color, until you have a closet full of suits and can pick and choose at your whim, you want something that’s going to be wearable in as many situations -- and seasons -- as possible. That, according to Alperin, would be a mid-weight 100-percent wool or wool blend.

5. Find Your Fit
“The shoulder and jacket length should be as close to perfect as possible,” says Alperin. “Anything else can be fixed.” The shoulders should end where your shoulders end; if they’re hanging off the end, even a smidge, put the suit back on the rack and find another.

Next, check the length. “You should be able to cup your hand underneath the bottom of the jacket.” If you brought dad along, and he’s telling you to go to the tips of your fingers, ignore him. That was the rule in his day; the new rule, according to Alperin, is a more modern look. “It makes everyone look taller if your jacket is a little shorter.”

Now you can start to relax, because the tailor will handle the rest. If your pants are flat front, make sure they fit in the waist (that’s your waist, not your hips) and they’ll have a nice straight fit down to the break on your shoe. Have the tailor hem your pants so they bend right as they hit the shoe and don’t bunch up. The sleeves should be tailored so that your shirt cuffs show a quarter of an inch. If you bought the right shoulders and jacket length, says Alperin, that’s all the tailoring you’ll need to do.

6. Complete the Outfit
“A mistake a lot of men make is purchasing a suit without the rest of the outfit,” says Alperin. “Without the tie, the socks, the shoes, it’s nothing.” You’ll need a minimum of two shirts: one white, one light blue. If you find a white shirt you like, Alperin suggests buying a few of them. “Your suit will outlive all of your shirts.”

There’s only one rule for socks: they must be darker than your suit. If your suit is a very dark navy, you can even wear black socks. Ties, of course, can run the gamut, but if you’re not ready to experiment, just go solid. “A solid burgundy tie, a dark green tie, navy, gray … they all look good with a navy suit on either a white or light blue shirt.”

Finally, says Alperin, invest in a good pair of black shoes -- a typical men’s dress shoe like a Cole Haan lace-up -- and a black belt to match. Most important of all: Keep your shoes polished. “It makes the whole outfit, which a lot of men don’t realize.”

Photo: @iStockphoto.com/theprint