Workplace Fitness Can be Key to Getting Adults More Active
Too many people are still failing to get enough exercise. In the US, it’s estimated that more than 4 out of 5 of adults don’t do enough to meet the guidelines for physical activity set by the federal government. Those include 2.5 hours of moderate aerobic activity and two lots of strengthening exercises every week.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) monitors the Department of Health and Human Services’ physical guidelines for adults. To encourage more adults to get moving and to try to meet those weekly targets for exercise, the CDC wants better access to parks and gyms to be made available and affordable.
It is also targeting businesses to encourage employers to make the health and fitness of their employees a priority. Stressful working conditions, in which workers are stuck at a desk for hours without a break, don’t help. And with digital technology allowing employees to do much of their job with the help of a smartphone, it can be almost impossible to switch off even during lunch to go for a run or just a brisk walk.
Some progressive employers are involved in workplace wellness programs, designed to keep their workers healthy and also to improve the working environment. This isn’t simply an altruistic gesture by employers, of course: healthy workers keep health insurance costs down and those employees are then likely to be much more productive, too.
The antithesis of workplace wellness programs are schemes introduced by firms to penalise those workers who do not follow healthy lifestyle habits, such as refusing to hire individuals who smoke or raising the insurance premiums for staff who don’t quit smoking or lose weight to reduce high blood pressure.
Such schemes are unlikely to win hearts and minds and persuade people to change tack in their lives. Instead employees should lobby their bosses to provide space and time within the organisation for exercise and activity programs with incentives and reward schemes for those who do get more fit and active. The carrot would certainly seem to be more effective than the stick.
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