Keep Fit for a Healthy Career

There are many reasons why it’s important to stay fit and healthy. Regular exercise helps to boost your heart health, keeps your weight down, reduces stress, and boosts your mental performance. However, have you stopped to think about how being fit can boost your career chances? Being fit and healthy is actually a great way to help your career.

Many employers now recognise the importance of employee wellness to the success of the company. Happy workers generally perform better, are more effective, and have to take fewer days off sick. This is one of the reasons why companies offer health perks to their staff such as gym memberships.

One of the challenges of keeping fit if you are a busy working mum or successful entrepreneur is time. With so many demands on your energies, it can seem like going for a morning run or a session at the gym is just too much.

The good news is that regular exercise doesn’t have to take up too much of your time. What’s more, the benefits of maintaining levels of fitness far outweigh those associated with not being fit.

Of course, most of us know how staying fit is essential for better health. But, let’s look in more detail as to how keeping fit is essential for a better and more successful career.

1. Better health leads to increased productivity

Regular physical exercise is one of the best ways to strengthen your cognitive function. Many scientists acknowledge that wellbeing leads to increased performance at work.

For example, researchers from Harvard Medical School found that strenuous exercise increases areas in the brain that are involved with learning and memory. Exercise also reduces inflammation which has a positive impact on brain cell health. The recommendations are to have at least half an hour of moderate exercise on most days of the week.

There is another way that exercising increases your productivity. When you are jogging, lifting weights, or cycling, you have more time to generate more ideas or solve problems. Regular breathing gets your mind working more effectively. So, you may find that by the time you return to your desk, you have already solved the problem.

This means that getting fit will make you a better and more valuable employee.

2. Lower levels of stress and anxiety

Another way that getting fit boosts your career is that you suffer less from the effects of stress. For many people, this means being able to concentrate better, deal with challenging situations, and be calmer when problems arise.

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America reports that exercise is essential to maintain mental fitness. Physical activity releases endorphins in the brain which lower stress, make you feel better, and improve sleep patterns. Also, people who enjoy regular exercise are less likely to suffer from depression than those who have a sedentary lifestyle.

Because staying fit strengthens your mental abilities, you will be more creative and be able to focus better. What employer would appreciate that type of employee?

3. Better health leads to fewer days off work

Because exercise if better for your health in general, you are less likely to come down with an infection. 

There is no basis for the myth that intense exercise suppresses the immune system. In fact, the journal Frontiers in Immunology in 2018 conducted a review of available evidence on the effects of exercise on immunity.

Researchers found that all the evidence seems to point to the fact that a physically active lifestyle has a multitude of health benefits. Regular physical activity reduces instances of ‘catching’ viral or bacterial infections. In addition, exercising regularly also lowers the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer.

Also, since stress negatively impacts your immune system, regularly working out benefits both your mental health and physical health at the same time.