The best investment you will ever make in your company is an employee fitness Program!!!

Most adults spend about 2/3 of their life at work. Unfortunately for many, work tends to be a very sedentary place….. not very conducive to being fit. The less fit we are, the tougher all of our stresses are to tame. Fact: Fitness is the #1 form of stress management!

It’s hard for some people to get why fitness is the best way to conquer stress. Fitness is a lifestyle, not going “on and off” a diet, joining a gym and not going. Fitness is about making better choices for an all round healthier lifestyle. When one incorporates fitness as an integral part of who they are, it is not “another pressure”. 

Virtually any type of exercise can decrease the production of stress hormones therefore counteracting your body’s natural stress response. The same regular fitness routine that helps prevent disease, builds  muscle, makes you look great, builds your self confidence also helps you better manage stress.

Just a few direct ways in which exercise reduces stress:

1. 1)Relaxes tense muscles and helps you sleep better….is sleep important to stress management?
   

2. 2)Exercise stimulates blood flow  to the brain bringing additional sugars and oxygen to feed the brain while you are hammering out that business plan. Maybe that’s why I say I do my best thinking during my cardio!
   

3. 3)When you are deep in thought, the neurons of the brain are much more active. As in all cellular activity, there is cellular waste. You know that feeling that my brain is overloaded? By exercising, you speed the flow of blood through your brain, removing the cellular waste. So instead of going outside to smoke a cigarette, feeding more toxins into your body… go for a walk!
   

4. 4)Endorphins…my personal addiction. Exercise stimulates the release of endorphins into the bloodstream. Also known as “runner’s high”, these endorphins give you a pure, healthy, happy feeling, positively affecting your overall sense of well-being.
   

5. 5)The immune system is our body's protective network designed to fend off invasion by harmful substances, including bacteria, viruses, and harmful chemicals, and to act as a surveillance system against the development of cancer. We have all heard how stress weakens our immune system…makes sense why? The lymphatic system (which is responsible for immunity) on its own is a pumpless system. It is dependent on the pumping action of strong muscles to help it circulate through out the body.  Yes, exercise strengthens your immune system.
   

I have this strange habit of walking through malls and stopping random people to interview them about their fitness likes & dislikes.  Here is a list I have compiled of the most common reasons people resist fitness programs:

-I don’t have time… how can it be good for me if it puts another time demand on me?

-I refuse to live on lettuce and rice cakes

- I hate to exercise

-I make a fool of myself exercising

-I don’t have time/money to prepare “healthy meals”

-I travel too much

-I also have family obligations

-I look terrible in exercise clothes

-Its expensive

-I tried it for a week it made no difference

-people drop dead from exercising….. what?#@?!^^?@$#??

This list could go on forever. This is why we need to implement a lifestyle fitness routine. When you spend 2/3 of your life at work, this is a great place to put your fitness routine in action. Guaranteed, there will be those who want to “buddy” up with you and get with the program as well.  What we need to do is get inside that office, make fitness an integral part of the workplace milieu, so fitness is not another cumbersome demand on our time. We need to weave fitness into the workplace environment. That’s great if there is a gym in the building….does that mean that people actually use the gym? Do you know what the #1 use of the treadmill in the bedroom?....It’s not for exercise, it is most used as a place to hang clothes!!!!

Study after study has shown that fit people are more productive with their time, have a happier more positive disposition, and have a lower rate of absenteeism. Implementing a lifestyle fitness program into the workplace shows your employees that management really does care about their people. Empower our people to make healthier lifestyle choices, have more confidence and let’s get them de-stressed! Company fitness programs are a great way to encourage & implement team building initiatives within the organization. Keep your most valuable asset – your people -  happy & fulfilled. This can really lower employee turnover by showing them that management is genuinely concerned about their health and well being.

Let me create a unique, sustainable fitness program based on your employee needs & time. You need a real corporate fitness coach...not someone to just talk about it.

Shira@fitfan4fun.com