When you’re facing intense demands at work, every moment away from your desk may seem like precious time lost, leading you to view exercise as a luxury you can’t prioritize. But what if I told you that skipping your workout might actually be costing you more time than it saves? In this article, The author explores how breaking a sweat unlocks a plethora of work-related benefits that may elude those who solely focus on grinding away.
Ever pondered why exercise consistently appears in the daily routines of the most accomplished individuals, regardless of their hectic schedules? Consider Elon Musk, renowned for his 100-hour workweeks yet still managing to fit in a few workouts, or Barack Obama, who maintained a regular exercise regimen throughout his tenure in the White House. “The main reason I do it is just to clear my head and relieve me of stress,” Obama shared with Men’s Health US. “Most of my workouts have to come before my day starts. Usually I get in about 45 minutes, six days a week. I’ll lift [weights] one day, do cardio the next.” Obama isn’t the sole former President to prioritize exercise. Bill Clinton, causing the Secret Service no shortage of challenges, made a point of running around Washington three times a week to keep himself mentally sharp for leading the nation.
Undoubtedly, stress relief and mental clarity are key benefits that exercise brings to your professional life. It can uplift your mood, enhance cognitive function, and sharpen your intellectual acumen. A 2013 study discovered that even a single exercise session could enhance the cognitive processing abilities of adults across all age groups. Exercise can heighten concentration, accelerate learning, bolster memory retention, and stimulate creativity—qualities essential for peak performance in the workplace.
More exercise, more energy
Another reason successful people keep fit is that exercise gives you more energy in the workplace. “Staying in shape is very important. Doing anything well requires energy, and you just have a lot more energy when you’re fit,” said Mark Zuckerberg in a Facebook Q&A session.
“I make sure I work out at least three times a week – usually first thing when I wake up.”
Joe Wicks makes no secret of the benefits of his exercise routine either. “Exercise is so important to my energy levels,” he says. “Without my regular workouts I’d really struggle to be productive and get things done. Even when I’m feeling tired or stressed, a quick HIIT session always makes me feel better and refocusses me.”
So what is it that means you can get energy by expending it? “It’s the physical activity paradox. How can you expend energy, and end up with more, but that’s what it [exercise] does,” says Professor Jim McKenna, Professor of Physical Activity and Health at Leeds Beckett University. “If you’re a bit frustrated or just feeling a little bit tired, it helps you to generate positive energy.”
“I try to do something every day that allows me to feel active,” Oprah Winfrey told O Magazine. “I just know that movement and flexibility, particularly the older you get, is what makes you feel alive. So I don’t want to just be alive, I want to feel it.”
One of the most important studies about exercise in the workplace didn’t compare inactive people with active people, but instead looked at how productive people were on days they exercised compared with days they didn’t. “You find there’s about a 17 per cent difference to you on a day when you exercise versus you on a day when you don’t,” says McKenna. “It’s about an hour’s difference. The hour of exercise leads to you doing more in the seven hours while you’re at work compared to working eight hours.”
A 2008 study by Leeds Met University also found that as well as being more productive, employees got on better with their colleagues when they exercised during the day, and that they were more satisfied at the end of a day’s work.
An essential routine
All of these benefits are a recipe for success, and that’s why the world’s most successful people consistently credit exercise as a vital part of their daily routine. “Keeping active is a huge part of my life. I seriously doubt that I would have been as successful in my career (and happy in my personal life), if I hadn’t always placed importance on my health and fitness,” Virgin founder Richard Branson told Virgin.com. “I start every day with exercise. It puts me in a great mind frame to get down to business, and also helps me to get the rest I need each night.”
Branson’s regime is similar to that of Apple CEO Tim Cook, who gets up early to exercise most days, or Mark Cuban, businessman and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, who casts the net wide with the types of exercise he does.
“I try to do cardio for at least an hour, six or seven days a week, knowing I’ll miss a day or two now and then because of travel,” Cuban told Dallas News. “I do elliptical and the stair gauntlet, play basketball, and take kickboxing and Latin fusion aerobic classes.”
Having an active boss like Branson, Cook or Cuban can lead to a measurable benefit in terms of a company’s success. A study by the University of Cologne found that companies in the USA’s S&P 1500 index whose CEOs had finished a marathon were worth 5 per cent more on average than those whose bosses had not.
Everyone has a different routine that works for them, so it’s about finding what works for you. For Microsoft founder Bill Gates, it’s an hour on the treadmill whilst watching educational DVDs, while for Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, it’s meditation for 30 minutes each morning, followed by three rounds of a seven-minute workout. “It’s about a personal performance profile – what is it that makes you buzz? If you can find that out, then deploy that,” says McKenna.
Time to look at exercise a different way
All these benefits mean that it’s time to look at exercise in a different way, as psychologist Ron Friedman, PhD, explains in the Harvard Business Review:
“Instead of viewing exercise as something we do for ourselves — a personal indulgence that takes us away from our work – it’s time we started considering physical activity as part of the work itself. The alternative, which involves processing information more slowly, forgetting more often, and getting easily frustrated, makes us less effective at our jobs and harder to get along with for our colleagues.”
“You have to exercise,” Obama told Vanity Fair, “or at some point you’ll just break down.”
