Studies show that movement is not just good for your body and overall physical and mental health, but it actually improves your performance at work. Here are some of the benefits of exercising at work:
- Increases productivity
- Working longer does not mean working smarter. Smarter companies should encourage their employees to use work time to exercise, says research from Stockholm University. Using work time to exercise actually leads to higher levels of productivity overall.
- Other research identified how specific exercises, like walking and using equipment such as treadmill desks, can improve key productivity indicators like employee mood and memory.
- Improves concentration
- If you need to complete a detail-oriented task that requires huge amounts of concentration, using a treadmill desk might help you. A team at HEC in Montreal found that people who walked at a treadmill desk while reading texts and emails could more easily recall the content and intent of those messages (through their responses to a true-false quiz), than people who sat down to read the same texts and emails.
- Raises enthusiasm
- University of Birmingham researchers compared a group of office workers who took part in a ten-week long lunchtime walking program to a group of office workers who didn’t walk. Back at work, the walkers – who each took a 20 minute walk three times a week – reported improved enthusiasm, more relaxation and less nervousness while at work than the workers who didn’t take part in the walking program.
The Negative Impact of NOT exercising at work:
It has been shown that not exercising throughout the workday is bad for you.
“A growing body of evidence suggests that sedentary office workers and other inactive people are at a relatively high risk of dying early. Sedentary people have elevated levels of biomarkers linked to cardiovascular disease, including insulin, glucose, and triglycerides,” says an article from the MIT Technology Review.
Movement, and more of it, not longer hours, appears to be the answer to addressing all workplace productivity issues through improved overall health, improved memory and improved mood.