Learn to Love Exercise

April 6, 2010
Written by: Julie Bosche, Filed in: Employee Health Programs

You’re doing everything you can think of to promote good health in the workplace. You’re offering incentives, providing your employees with tips and tricks to getting in shape, touting the benefits of regular exercise and healthy eating. Why isn’t everyone jumping on board the health train?

Well, frankly, some people just don’t want to.

From that standpoint, there are so many reasons not to exercise. According to WebMD, those reasons include intimidation about the fitness industry as a whole or about the gym atmosphere, lack of time, negative image of exercise, slow results, money, lack of support, and lack of motivation. It can be hard to counteract these ingrained perceptions, but there are ways to turn exercise aversion into (at least) exercise tolerance.

And knowing what we know about the benefits of exercise—its positive effects on heart health, weight management, and disease prevention, as well as on morale, productivity, and employee presenteeism—it’s undoubtedly in your company’s best interest to help workout haters see the light.

Exercise experts Kelli Calabrese and Nicole Gunning offer some helpful tips to encourage those sedentary souls to change their ways:

Do what you enjoy. An activity that’s fun for you—dancing, hiking, biking, swimming—will feel less like exercise and make you more likely to stick with it.

Set goals. Make them realistic, and keep track of your progress. Charting your long- and short-term achievements, and rewarding yourself when you’ve reached a goal, will help keep you motivated.

Work out in the morning. Research shows that morning exercisers are more likely to stick with their routine than those who exercise later in the day, when excuses have more time to develop.

Get a partner. A dedicated workout friend will help keep you accountable and committed to your fitness goals, not to mention making the exercise sessions more fun.

Quit the all-or-nothing thinking. Don’t worry if you can’t find an hour for your daily workout; aim for 30 minutes and try to get the most out of it. Understand that all is not lost if you skip a day or two; just get up tomorrow and give it another shot!