Work Life and Exercise

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Current research reveals which jobs have the most eager leisure-time exercisers, and which have the least. When it comes to exercise and working out, for most people the problem is not whether you should do it, but how much activity you need to perform in order to improve your health.

In the most recent research published by a reputed institution at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers have a taken close look at how jobs influence the amount of exercises people get during their off-hours. The study included data input from national surveys of Americans conducted between the years 2008 to 2014. Federal guidelines now recommend that people get at least of 2 and half hours of average physical activity, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity each week, plus some heavy weight training to strengthen muscles for few days a week. While this recommendation includes exercise both at work and post-work, most people aren’t getting much physical activity during their job hours. So Debra Blackwell and Tanya Clarke from the NCHS decided to examine data on how people’s jobs interconnected with the amount of exercise they got during their off hours while not performing the job.

What they discovered was that overall, 43% of employed adults did not get the recommended dose of exercise. And people in manufacturing related jobs, which likely involve more physical labor and movements, tended to exercise during their free time than people with managerial or more white collar-based occupations; 51% of people with production jobs failed to fulfill the exercise recommendations compared to only around 30% of people with professional and white collar jobs. In fact, people with more stressful jobs reported the highest amounts of recreational physical activity.

And also people should be well aware of the fact that the job duration too had an impact on the amount of exercises they got. Now let’s say for an example if you work for hours, you don’t feel like working out and you feel stressful. This automatically drags you down. And if you are into a job which requires you to work for short hours (7-9 hours a day) you are pretty much stress free and willing to spend some time on exercises. This really is a key factor to be considered health wise. From one side you don’t get the necessary amount of exercises and from the other side you feel stressed after working for long hours. So you should always maintain a balance between your working hours and the time committed for exercises. People think that people work from home have a plenty of time to work out and do exercises. But it’s not the truth. A study has revealed that people work from home are lazy compared to others, because there is very little physical movement with related to their job. So the ideal thing to do if you are working from home is that to make sure you walk around a bit and have some time off your personnel computer.

Education seemed to be an important factor in the link between jobs and physical exercises. The more you are educated, the more likely people were to get the daily dose physical activity requirements. Even among those with manufacturing related jobs, people with higher designations tended to exercise more in their off-time. Its way more than the highest grade achieved. It represents free access to information, and how you utilize that information to make decisions about daily needs.

” It’s quite likely that higher education guided people to learn more about the positive side of exercise, and also have more resources to be physically fit when they were not working.

This report didn’t analyze things such as whether people smoked or what their food pattern was like, but Blackwell doubts that education may influence those factors as well.

The study also didn’t consist information on how much exercise people were getting during work, so it’s possible that people in manufacturing related jobs were getting physical exercises during work hours and therefore worked out less during their free time, while people in high ranked jobs that are more sedentary did the vice versa.

That’s interesting, especially given that more researches have confirmed the negative results of sitting on the same place for longer hours, including higher risks of cancer and disability as well as heart disease. Blackwell’s results suggest that people in sedentary jobs may be getting the message, and adding in more physical activity during their off-hours. Whether such weekend leisure activity is enough will likely be the reason for other studies. Older people always tend to have a lot of vegetables and fruits, because they know the true value of them.

Many people find the way of traveling to work a great exercise. Some people walk to work in the morning which is a great exercise to do at that time of the day. And some people ride the cycle for kilometers to reach their work place. And if this happens to continue on a daily basis, it is really good for their body, mind and soul. People working for IT based companies undergo a huge amount of work stress. In that case certain employers have equipped their workplaces with treadmills and other stuff. People who consume a lot of fruits have a great chance of maintaining good stamina. The amounts of sleep you get have an indirect linkage between your exercise schedule and your work life.

Overall your work life has a direct linkage between the exercise you do and the amount of exercise you actually need. So there should be a balance between these two variables all the time. It is best to wake up early, sleep early and eat healthy. Once in a way you can have a cheat day with your office mates. But you have to make sure that you don’t slip away from your good work habits and daily dose of exercises.

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