How to get employees to exercise

Through various studies it has been shown that physical activity is one of the best ways that we can get our bodies into better shape, not to mention that it is a great way to go about losing weight. But the main problem is that many people claim that they don't have enough time in the day with work and other demands to fit a physical fitness routine into their lives. And because more and more people are not physically fit it is leading to numerous health problems, which in turn is causing you as an employer to pay higher health care costs.

Naturally as an employer you are looking at the bottom line and what you can do to help lower your health care costs, but you also want to keep your good employees around. One thing that you can do to accomplish both of these goals is to get your employees to start exercising. This will actually lower your health care costs because your employees will lose weight and get into better shape, which means they are going to be healthier.

But how do you get your employees to start exercising, not to mention how do you get them to keep exercising once you have gotten them started. The best way to get them to start exercising is to offer them some kind of an incentive for their results, it has been shown through numerous studies that cash or something close to cash, points they can redeem for prizes, is the best type of incentive to get people to start exercising. But to get them to keep exercising you are going to need to educate your employees about what physical activity can do for their lives, how it benefits them. But you are also going to need to help them design a fitness program that they can follow.

Here is what physical activity can do for your employees lives:

• Improved health
• Reduces their risk of becoming obese by helping them achieve and maintain a healthy weight
• Reduces their risk of heart disease, osteoporosis, certain cancers and diabetes
• Helps control blood pressure
• Improves blood cholesterol levels
• Boosts their energy level
• Helps build and maintain healthy bones, muscles and joints
• Improves their immunity to minor illnesses
• Improved physical fitness
• Builds their endurance
• Increases their strength
• Enhances their flexibility
• Reduces frequency and severity of injuries
• Increases their fitness level Improved well-being
• Enhances their emotional well-being
• Reduces stress, tension, anxiety and depression
• Improves the quality of their sleep
• Increases their mental acuity
• Improves their productivity
• Improves their self-esteem
• Improves their quality of life
• Reduces health care costs
• Maintenance of a healthy body weight

Here are the steps you should tell your employees to do in order to start a fitness program that will work out the best for their individual needs.

Step one:

They are going to need to assess their fitness level; even if they think that they already know how fit they are they should still complete this process. The reason for doing this before they do anything else is that by assessing and recording their baseline fitness scores they are giving themselves something to measure their progress against.

Here are some things that they should record for their baseline fitness scores:

• Body mass index
• Waist circumference at the level of their navel
• How far they can reach forward while seated on the floor with their legs in front of them
• How many pushups they can do at a time
• How long it takes to walk one mile
• Their pulse rate before and after a one mile walk

Step two:

One of the hardest parts about exercising is actually making sure that you do it on a regular basis so it is a good idea to make sure that your employees design a fitness program that they can follow.

Here are some things that you can tell them to keep in mind when designing their own individual fitness plans:

• Consider their fitness goals - are they starting the program to lose weight or for some other reason. Whatever the goal is they need to have clear and concise goals because it will be easier to measure their progress if they know what they are working towards.
• Plan a logical progression of activity - this is where you are going to want to tell your employees to think about what kind of activities they are doing, basically if they have never exercised before they should start off small and work their way towards harder exercises. They should also keep in mind if they have some kind of injury or medical condition they are going to want to clear any and all exercises with their doctor or physical therapist.
• Think about how they'll build activity in to their daily routine - this is important because many people find it hard to exercise during the day because they just don't have enough time in the day to get everything done so the exercise gets pushed out of the picture entirely. What they should do is look for a variety of ways that they can fit physical activities, such as walking up a flight of stairs, into their day. But they should also set aside a certain time like any other appointment to do their workout routine, even if it's walking a mile on a treadmill during their favorite television show.
• Plan to include different activities - this is done so that your employees won't get bored with doing the same exercise routine over and over again. But by including different activities it has also been shown that you lower your chances of injuring or overusing one certain muscle or joint. So what studies show is that you want to alternate what area of the body you are working on each time that you exercise.
• Allow time for recovery - numerous studies show that most people tend to start working out with a lot of energy and they usually end up over working their muscles and joints usually until the point of injury or soreness. So you want to be sure that you allow plenty of time between sessions so that your body can rest and recover.
• Put it on paper - by writing it down it is more of a contract and people tend to stick to the written plan. People who just say they will exercise tend to slow down after the first week or two.

Step three:

If they are going to use any specialized exercise equipment, such as a treadmill or stationary bike they are going to need to assemble all of the equipment into a central location. Or perhaps join a gym that gives them access to all of the equipment that they will need.

Step four:

Now that everything is set to go they are ready to put their fitness program to work.

Here are some tips you should give them about starting their fitness program:

• Be flexible - just because they have a set schedule they don't have to stick to it no matter what. A great example is if they are sick they need to give themselves time off until they get better.
• Be creative - just because they have a set routine for working out that doesn't mean that they can't change their routine around a bit to get creative. A great example would be rather than doing their exercise routine they take a hike with their family or go on a bike ride with a friend.
• Listen to their bodies - if they feel pain, shortness of breath, dizziness or nausea they should stop exercising and take a break. Most likely what is happening is that they are pushing themselves too hard and simply rest will solve the problems, but if it becomes worse or more serious symptoms occur they should talk to their doctor.
• Break things up if they have to - many people tend to think that they need to do all of their exercises at one specific time, what they don't know is that studies have shown that shorter exercise sessions also have aerobic benefits too. So if you can't fit one session into your schedule try breaking it down into three sessions.
• Start slowly and build up gradually - it is very important to give yourself plenty of time to warm up and cool down while you are exercising. But once you have warmed up you want to speed up to a pace where you can keep up that same pace for five to ten minutes without getting overly tired. A good rule of thumb to follow is if you can't carry on a conversation while exercising than you are pushing yourself too hard and need to slow down.

Step five:

Monitor your progress. After about six weeks of exercising you are going to want to retake the tests you took in step one so that you can see how much progress you have made. After the first six weeks you are going to want to retake those tests every three to six months, depending on how you feel it is going. But when looking at their progress you are going to want to let your employees know that they might need to increase their exercise routines to continue to make improvements.