According to research conducted at the University of Georgia, 10 minutes walking up and down the stairs is more energizing than drinking a standard cup of coffee. Plus the stairs a readily available and free leg excerciser.
The benefits of exercising are undeniable. Besides helping you stay in tip-top form, regular exercising can help elevate your mood and contribute to mental health.
This is just scraping the surface, though. To learn more about different types of exercises that will help you enhance your concentration and productivity, stay tuned.
Reasons To Start Exercising
If you’re not entirely certain that you should start incorporating exercise into your daily routine, here are a couple of compelling reasons to change your mind.
Overcoming Negative Emotions
If you’re feeling anxious or stressed for any reason (work, family, or relationship), you should definitely consider exercising. Even the lightest aerobic exercise will produce endorphins and elevate your mood. If you stick to the routine, you will also have a better sleep schedule.
According to numerous research, people who participated in regular weekly exercises – of any kind – found it easier to overcome negative emotions and stated that they felt less stressed.
Boosting Confidence
Exercise boosting confidence would be stating the obvious – but it’s still note-worthy.
Although most people engage in physical activity because they want to stay fit, lose weight, and work on their muscle game, it’s important to note that this will not only boost your confidence on the outside.
After regularly exercising, you will feel better about yourself on the inside as well. This is because exercising produces dopamine – a chemical that influences motivation.
Improving Productivity & Focus
If enhancing productivity and focus are your long-term goals, engaging in physical activities is a no-brainer. Exercising is, by far, one of the most effective ways to deal with fatigue and decreased energy levels.
If you’ve experienced problems with constant fatigue at work, exercising or hitting the gym is bound to increase your performance in the workplace.
Whether it’s a 10-minute walk, a quick exercise at the gym, or a morning jog, exercising regularly increases blood flow in the brain, reduces stress hormones, and produces serotonin.
Imployees who engage in any kind of weekly physical activity perform better at work – their time management, workflow, and mental clarity are obvious indicators of success.
How Often Should You Exercise Per Week?
Given its many benefits, your next question might be time-sensitive.
How often should you exercise per week in order to be able to see the results?
As you make progress and adjust your workout routine, you’ll see that it’s highly individual. However, you can single out this fact.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week is the perfect balance. Of course, you can adjust these 150 minutes according to your schedule and preferences – balance, cardio, flexibility, leg exerciser, and so on.
3 Best Exercises for Boosting Productivity & Focus
Here are the three best exercises that will help you boost productivity and focus and show immediate results:
Walking
Yes, you read that right – taking up walking is the best leg exerciser. As we’ve hinted in the introduction, only 10 minutes of walking up and down the stairs brings benefits.
Taking up walking for 30 minutes will help you work on your leg excerciser muscles, but even more importantly, it’ll help those creative juices flow. In that light, let’s mention this – one study found that walking increased employees’ creativity by up to 81%.
The best thing about this physical activity is that everything’s up to you. You can choose when’s the best time for you to take a walk – be it in the morning, after lunch, or for an evening stroll.
Another thing – it’s completely free. You don’t need to pay for a gym membership, and you don’t have to invest in anything. All you need is your most comfortable pair of sneakers and 30 minutes to spare.
Yoga
The next exercise is yoga. As with walking – you can choose to do this in the comfort of your home, or you can sign up for yoga exercises near you.
Either way, the benefits of taking up yoga are increased motivation and self-confidence. It’s a well-known fact that people who practice yoga have a better time dealing with stressful situations.
Besides the psychological benefits, yoga also contributes to increased flexibility and a balanced metabolism.
A general recommendation would be to practice yoga for 20-30 minutes, 6 days per week. This is, of course, if yoga is your preferred and only exercise.
Moderate Aerobic Exercises
Besides walking and yoga, you can take up moderate aerobic exercises. Besides being useful in beating fatigue, regular aerobics will help you lower your stress load and increase productivity.
For example, a popular aerobic leg excerciser is Box Jumps. You can do this exercise at home, or you can add it to your leg excerciser day at the gym. Regarding arm exercises, there are plenty of choices – you can try the Mountain Climber, Seal Jack, or the Arm Circle exercise.
Moderate aerobic exercises should take 150 minutes per week. If you make significant progress, though, you can ramp this up to 70 minutes of intense training.
Summing Up
So far, we’ve gone through the benefits, types, and time you should spend on exercising. Overall, taking up any kind of physical activity will help you increase your productivity and focus and deal better with stress.
The choice is up to you – you can try walking, yoga, or moderate aerobic exercises – the only thing that matters is that you stay consistent.
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