Wellbeing and Exercise

Overview

The Australian corporate sector is being confronted by a significant and everincreasing problem, that being deterioration in the health and wellbeing of its
executives. Poor nutrition, lack of movement, and continuous stress are
manifesting in a range of chronic diseases (Healey, 2017).

Evidence

Warbuton et al (2016) suggest:
“There is irrefutable evidence of the effectiveness of regular physical activity
in the primary and secondary prevention of several chronic diseases including:
cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension, obesity and
depression”.

“Physically inactive middle aged men and women (who exercise less than 1
hour per week) will experience up to a 52% increase in mortality compared to
those that are physically active”.

Activities

The simple message of “move more and sit less” is more understandable by
contemporary society and is formed on the basis of a strong body of evidence
(Warburton & Bredin, 2016).

“More and more we are finding that members are looking for a wellbeing
dimension to exercise, so our mind and body classes… help members to
rebalance, de-stress and restore their body’s natural equilibrium,” says Andy
Cosslett, Global CEO of Fitness First (Healey, 2017):

MINIMUM:
Get up every 20 minutes and walk/stretch;
Take the stairs where possible;
Build simple exercises into your daily work routine – see
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/exercise-at-work
OPTIMUM:
Ride a bike to work;
Build some cardiovascular exercises into your weekly schedule (talk to our
primary healthcare provider first to ensure this is right for you);
Set a goal, ie 5km fun run and structure your exercise to achieve that goal.

Research Articles:

Holstila A Rahkonen O Lahelma E & Lahti J 2016.
Changes in leisure-time physical activity and subsequent sickness absence due to any cause, muscula-skeletal and mental causes.
Journal of Physical Activity and Health.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/jpah.2015-0442

Van Heck G & Vingerhoets A 2007.
Leisure sickness: A biopsychosocial perspective. Psychological Topics, 16, 2,187-200

Warburton D & Bredin S 2016.
Reflections on Physical Activity and Heath: What should we recommend?
Canadian Journal of Cardiology 32, 4, 495-504

Practitioner articles:
https://theconversation.com/exercise-ismedicine-and-doctors-are-starting-toprescribe-it-104390