Workplace exercise
Everyone knows they should do some form of exercise. Especially in modern times where technology has replaced a lot of the incidental exercise that we might have once done. Add to that your workload with family and deadlines with your job, sometimes when you get home the idea of strapping on some runners and going out for some exercise can seem a lot less inviting than the couch.
But, even though exercise will take some time out of your day, the research is quite clear. If you perform some exercise (any at all) during the day, your time at work and in your family life is more productive. It sometimes seems counterproductive to take a 30 minute break from work to do some exercise but it really can help you meet the deadlines, think more clearly and interact with people more positively.
You don’t need to go for a 10km run or anything like that but one study found approximately 15% increased performance in the workplace when workers spend 30-60 minutes at lunch to do some exercise vs those that didn’t participate in the exercise. Even better, ratings for mental-interpersonal performance and the ability to manage time and output demands were consistently and significantly higher for people who exercised. Taking a bit of time at work to exercise also helps to prevent the dips in energy that you might have. Exercise assists with control of a number of hormones including cortisol, insulin, potentially dopamine and serotonin to name a few. Glucose is better regulated so you are less likely to need that coffee after lunch to get through to the end of the day. It is hard to consider using more energy to maintain energy, however a bit of exercise also helps us to make better decisions for the rest of our wellbeing. Food choices, sleep habits, self hygiene and relationships with family have all been studied and show improvement for people that take time throughout the day to exercise.
Workplaces often talk about absenteeism and how it can impact the bottom line or put pressure on other workers to pick up work that might otherwise not get done (on time). The area that often gets missed (and can be quite difficult to measure) is presenteeism. Put simply, presenteeism is when people are physically at work but not really very productive. It happens at home as well and most people can relate to procrastinating to avoid doing what you really should be doing, or taking way too long to do something that should be done in a short time. That is presenteeism.
Taking some time out through the day to perform some exercise is reported to reduce presenteeism fairly dramatically. It is difficult to conceive the idea that giving yourself less time to complete important tasks by adding in some exercise will actually allow you to get even more done. The other thing that was surprising to researchers was that a decrease in presenteeism at work due to allowing for some exercise actually reduced absenteeism by about 25% over a full year. That is about $1500.00 in direct savings per employee per year (there are indirect savings to consider also). So for a company of 20 people, you can save about $30k in direct costs and likely improve productivity by about 15% just by doing some (and getting other workers to do some) exercise in the middle of the work day. Workers will then also have that flow into personal life regarding productivity, reduced personal stress, improved relationships and it becomes an ongoing cycle of improvements that are both direct and indirect for the workplace and the home life of all workers.
Hopefully I have convinced you as the reader to consider taking some time out of your day, whether you are working, retired, stay at home mother or father, retiree or anybody really, to do some exercise. I could write and write about it. After chatting with a doctor the other day, he admitted that exercise is the single best thing that anybody can do to improve most areas of their health. He said that for almost every illness, there is not a single medication that will outdo exercise as a treatment. He went as far as saying that if everybody exercised sufficiently, the number of doctors and health care workers required would only be a fraction of what is currently being utilised to treat and manage illnesses.
What exercise do I do at work though?
It depends on accessibility to equipment and facilities but let's just say you have nothing other than a laptop and some space (or a beautiful rain free day outside). Keep it simple. And in most cases, you don’t even need to get changed out of your work clothes.
Day 1 - 30 minute stretch and yoga session
Day 2 - 20 minute walk (with a couple of hills to add a bit of puffing)
Day 3 - Body weight resistance exercise session
Day 4 - Beginner pilates session
Day 5 - Mini circuit for 10 minutes and a 15 minute walk.
Weekend - get to the beach if you can.
So if you are the boss, try to find a way to give your workforce some time to exercise. If you are an employee, present the idea to your boss. It is a no brainer, costs nothing and will help everybody to improve their work and home life.
