Physical Activity in the Work Place
Why is physical activity is so IMPORTANT?
Let's look over the benefits of Physical Activity
Being active makes you feel good, it’s a proven fact. Accumulating 150 minutes of moderate-vigorous-intense aerobic physical activity in bouts of 10 minutes a week can have great benefits. Those benefits include lowering your risks of heart disease, stroke, early death, high blood pressure, certain types of cancer, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis and obesity! These are great reasons to start or keep being active. And it can also lead to improvements in self-esteem, morale, fitness and strength.
Doesn’t reading this make you want to get up and run, bike, walk, or play sports?
If it’s so good for you why aren’t people being as active as they can be?
150 minutes a week of physical activity can be a daunting number. There are many reasons for that lack of physical activity but the main and most common reason for it is …TIME! A lot of people don’t think they have the time in their week to fit in those minutes. We all have busy schedules, from work commitments, family duties, and more.
How Can You Incorporate Physical Activity into your busy schedule?
Striking this balance can be especially difficult for office workers. Here are some tips for integrating physical activity into your work life.
- Park your car 10 minutes away from your work and walk like you are late for an important meeting.
- Take the stairs to go to your office. If you have stairs … don’t start miming going up and down stairs. Co-workers might look at you funny.
- Take the time to refill your water bottle, maybe even walk to the furthest water source.
- Go talk to your co-workers instead of emailing them.
SWEATY is what you may be thinking right now. If a day at the office stuck in sweaty clothes doesn’t sound too appealing bring an extra undershirt or do the more exerting things at the end of the day.
If these suggestions don’t appeal to you, or you want more, we have another option: The stationary work bike.
The Stationary Work Bike and Performance
Stationary work bikes are a great ADD to the work space when it comes to increasing you or your employee’s physical activity level. We would like to stress the add since this is an addition to the workspace and should be used periodically during the day and not for the whole 8 hours. Unless you are training for the Tour de France - if so bike your heart out!
You may be concerned about performance and the effects it has on completing your work in a timely matter while on the bike. Research has shown that using a stationary bike only slightly reduced computer typing performance, while the clicking performance was reduced when compared to sitting in a chair. Our suggestion is to encourage yourself or your employees to hop on the bike when reading emails or working on something that requires minimal clicking.
In our books the benefits obtained by riding the bike outweigh the slight performance drop during the task. After all, when you feel good, you are at the top of your game at work and at home.
References
Straker, L., Levine, J., & Campbell, A. (2009). The Effects of Walking and Cycling Computer Workstations on Keyboard and Mouse Performance. Human Factors, 51(6), 831–844. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720810362079