We all wish we had the discipline to drag ourselves out of bed for a spot of exercise before the commute to work.

An ingenious German man has found a way to combine the two by swimming to the office in the morning with his laptop, wallet and clothes in tow in a waterproof bag.

For the last two years, Benjamin David, 40, has dodged the stress of traffic lights and stressed out drivers by swimming over a mile to work down the river Isar in Munich instead.

“I’m not a monk… When I was on my bike, I would yell at cars,’ he told CBC. ‘When I was on foot, I would yell at cyclists, and so on and so forth.

“And just a few metres to the side of that is the river, and if you just swim down that, it’s completely relaxed and refreshing.”

Every morning, David zips up his computer, suit, shoes and mobile phone in an orange bag known as a ‘Wickelfisch’.

But knowing the dangers of river swimming, Benjamin always makes sure to check the river temperature before diving in.