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home / 世界杯决赛2022

fitness: employees can be reinvigorated by a lunch-hour exercise break

instead of going into a midday workout with a commitment to fill an exercise quota, think of it as a break for both mind and body.

by jill barker, special to the montreal gazette

nov 22 2021
read time 4 minute read
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strategies about how to fit more exercise into a day already packed with work and family commitments often focus on getting up earlier or doing more in less time. but one of the best times to find extra exercise minutes is in the middle of the workday.
scheduled for the perfect pocket of time to work up a sweat, lunch-hour fitness programs offer more than the many physical and mental benefits associated with regular exercise. employees who leave unanswered emails and a seemingly never-ending to-do list behind for a midday sweat often ride their post-workout high all the way to quitting time.
according to a team of researchers from erasmus university rotterdam in the netherlands, this spillover of energy from workout to workday is an understated and under-reported phenomenon. hence their efforts to explore the immediate effects of lunch-hour exercise on workplace productivity and creativity.
“we hypothesize that satisfaction with sports performance during the lunch break generates momentary vigour (i.e., cognitive liveliness and emotional energy) immediately after the lunch break and is indirectly related to creativity at work in the afternoon,” said the researchers.
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much of the hype around workday fitness programs focuses on metrics like reducing absenteeism and employee medical costs or increasing job satisfaction and engagement, but very little is known about the more immediate effects exercise has on how employees do their job. to find out more about whether the afterglow from a good workout positively affects the latter half of the workday, the research team recruited 59 dutch employees who take lunch-hour exercise breaks.
mostly university-educated, averaging 39 years of age and highly active, the study subjects spent approximately seven hours a week on activities such as swimming, yoga, strength training and boxing. they were polled twice a day — immediately after their noon-hour workout and again at the end of the workday — on three days, allowing the researchers to gain insight on the work outcomes immediately after exercise.
“our results revealed that on days employees were satisfied with their sports performance during their lunch break, they experienced more cognitive liveliness and emotional energy immediately after the break, but only when employees positively reflected on their work during the sports activity,” said the researchers. “we also found that on days employees felt more cognitive liveliness immediately after the lunch break, they were more creative when back at work.”
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based on their findings, the researchers noted the importance of participating in the type of noon-hour workouts that allow for positive experiences and positive thoughts. in other words, the immediate benefits of exercise are stronger after a successful, enjoyable workout. with that in mind, lunch-hour exercise programs should not only offer opportunities to be active, but should also ensure that the atmosphere is one in which enjoyment trumps competition and individual success is paramount.
“we suggest that employees may design their sports lunch breaks in such a way that satisfaction with sports performance is most likely to occur, for instance by setting sports goals that are challenging and attainable and aimed at personal improvement or mastery of a sport task,” said the researchers.
also important to feelings of success is going into a lunch-hour workout with more than just a commitment to fill the day’s exercise quota. instead, think of it as a break for both mind and body, and opt to recharge rather than push your physical limits. the researchers were looking beyond whether the intensity or duration of the workout had an effect on the workday, focusing instead on the positive energy that flows after a bout of exercise.

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another interesting part of their research is the potential for employees to reflect on their work while exercising. turns out that tapping into the unique mind/body connection that occurs during a workout can offer surprising insights and renewed energy toward solving workplace challenges.
“when people feel more mentally alert, they have more cognitive capacity and are more willing to find creative solutions for work-related problems, which may result in behaviours such as solving difficult problems, trying out new ideas and approaches to problems, and finding new uses for existing methods or equipment,” said the researchers.
none of this is news to anyone who exercises regularly over the lunch hour. work-related roadblocks are attacked with renewed vigour and often with a fresh approach post-workout. there’s also a noticeable absence of a late-afternoon dip in energy on days when lunch includes a bout of exercise.
considering the potential for noon-hour exercise to enrich the work environment, more companies should encourage employees to find the time to be physically active during the workday. be it through work-based fitness programs, the scheduling flexibility to go for a power walk or run, or having the space to roll out a yoga mat or store a bicycle, active employees are productive employees.

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