Not missing the link with physical activity
How much movement there is in your organisation? How diverse and tailored are the physical activities proposed and implemented? Do you implement them continuously? Do you check their impact not only participation?
While the spotlight continues to be mental health at work let’s not forget the crucial importance of movement, our bodies vitality and the critical connection between exercise and performance.
In an organisation we recently worked with the GM described their people as olympic athletes and considered fundamental to look at health and performance at work the same way an olympic competitor will perceived it. Although the focus was more on the high demands the jobs presented in this organisation and the need to be prepared for them, building huge endurance and resiliency, I chose to interpret this metaphor considering the importance of our physical health status. In recent years it has become clearer in the literature the importance of our psychical health to our whole health status.
A lot of organisations already have some kind of gym at work or any other physical activity partner and this is a good starting point. It is clear that once again implementing physical wellbeing programs will not work if it is a one size fits all and these programs need to address individual needs, such as specific physical job demands, and find ways to be individually tailored. New technology players are adding a different way to approach this challenge and move organisations physical health programs towards another level of impact.
At the same time physical activities can also be promoted collectively within organisations with great impact on team cohesion (plus the individual impact) and we have seen many companies develop their own paddle or volleyball (or other) teams internally with great success. But remember these initiatives should’t be once a year or even once a month, they should be frequent (twice a week ideally), led by people of the organisation and using professional training support (to make it challenging), as we used to do when we were at school. I do miss my school volleyball practice so much, just saying.
Finally, physical activity is also a critical public health issue, particularly in Portugal, we need to act fast and organisations have a role to play to build consistent and continuous approaches to prevent MSK disorders and build a strong and fit workforce, because once again it is good for business and it is good business.
So in this edition of our review we invited Louise Fleng Sandal, Associate Professor, University of Southern Denmark to guide us on recent research considering “The relationship between physical activity and health at work” in this blog post. We also suggest a very interest book “Reload — Menos Stress Mais Performance” written by José Soares, Full Professor of Physiology at the University of Porto and to watch a great Ted Talk by Chris Wharton “The Exercise Happiness Paradox”.
Do take part in this conversation by leaving a comment on our blog or replying to hello@bound.health
So let’s get back to movement and exercise, shall we?
Managing Partner Bound.Health
