Prioritizing our health is difficult. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) says fewer than half of adult Americans meet the minimum guidelines for aerobic physical activity. And it’s easy to understand why. Between balancing work and home life, finding the time and energy to exercise can seem impossible.
According to the CDC, the most common barriers to physical activity are lack of time, lack of energy, lack of social support, lack of motivation, lack of skill, high cost and lack of facilities. When you put it that way, it’s no wonder folks are having trouble keeping fit. But as understandable as it might be, our collective lack of activity can be dangerous. Beyond the more obvious health implications, a lower fitness level also has an impact on safety.
Physical well-being has direct effects on mental health, which in turn affects psychological safety. And when mental health and psychological safety are low, human factors like fatigue, frustration and rushing become much more hazardous. Those human factors lead to critical errors and increase the risk of serious injury or fatality. By finding ways to prioritize physical well-being, we can better equip ourselves to avoid or manage the effects of burnout, stress, panic and other human factors.
Of course, if simply knowing the benefits of physical activity was enough to keep us active, we’d all be in peak condition. The fact is, those barriers listed by the CDC are stubborn and persistent. Thankfully, there are a few strategies you can deploy in order to hurdle those obstacles and stay safe by getting physical. These approaches can help you improve your own safety, demonstrate personal commitment to the safety of others, and offer you some ways to keep employees safe in the workplace.
Walk it off
A great strategy for adding more physical activity to your life is walking more. It might seem simple, but the effects of walking are profound. Walking regularly can help you maintain a healthy body weight and reduce body fat. It can improve your cardiovascular health and decrease your risk of stroke or cardiac arrest. It can reduce stress levels and improve your mood. It can improve your energy levels and memory. According to research from the University of Exeter, a 15-minute walk can even curb your cravings for sweet foods, naturally improving your diet as a result.
One of the most important benefits of walking is its ability to improve your sleep. Fatigue is a dangerous human factor that can increase our risk of serious injury by affecting our awareness. When we’re tired, it’s difficult to keep our attention focused on what we’re doing—our minds are prone to wandering, our vision can become blurry, and we can even nod off to sleep when driving or operating machinery. With better sleep comes less risk of fatigue, which can be enough to keep you out of danger’s way.
When it comes to walking more, don’t worry about counting steps. Just try to make walking a bigger part of your life in simple ways that feel natural and fit with your lifestyle. Setting aside 15 minutes to walk around your neighborhood before or after work can do wonders—just be sure to observe pedestrian safety near roadways. But if that commitment is too much for your busy schedule, it’s okay to start small. Instead of picking up the phone to talk to a colleague, walk to their workstation and talk face to face. Take the stairs instead of an elevator or escalator when possible. Even a simple gesture like parking at the far end of a parking lot can add a bit more walking to your day. And it all adds up—if your goal is to improve your health and reap the safety benefits of exercise, finding small windows for walking can be enough to move the needle.
Teamwork makes the dream work
Two major barriers to physical activity are lack of social support and lack of motivation. This is where we can help keep each other fit, by organizing and participating in group exercise. Whether it’s a walking or running group, a work sports team or a collective fitness goal, working out together helps keep folks accountable to one another. The sense of group accomplishment creates a positive feedback loop that helps give participants the drive to be active when they might otherwise prioritize more sedentary activities.
Group activities can also go a long way in breaking down the lack of skill barrier too. Allie Townsend, assistant professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, says: “A big benefit of group fitness with an instructor is that you don’t need to think about how to do it – you just show up and are guided every step of the way.”
In addition to the fatigue-fighting benefits of exercise, group physical activity can contribute to a stronger safety culture. According to the Iowa State University’s kinesiology department, exercising in groups can boost motivation and aid in habit building, and research shows that interpersonal connection plays an important role in keeping folks engaged in exercise. The communication required for cooperative activities facilitates team building and supports the use of a common language. The more workers interact with each other, the stronger their sense of belonging will be and the more they will want to look out for others in their community.
Of course, group activities are more complex than solo initiatives like walking. You can help facilitate group physical activity in a few ways, including:
- Organize a walking or running group
- Start a work sports team in a community recreational league
- Include information about local fitness classes on bulletin boards or in your digital display presentations
It’s important that participation in these activities remains voluntary. Everyone has their own relationship with exercise and sports, and it’s important to respect that. By simply making employees aware of opportunities to be active together, you are breaking down barriers without burdening them with another obligation.
Active leadership for active lifestyles
The most difficult barriers to overcome when dealing with physical activity have to do with accessibility. Almost all physical activity requires specialized equipment or facilities if it’s going to be done safely—even some types of active walking should only be done with the right kinds of gear. Complicating things more, physical activity preferences are strongly linked to our sense of identity, so what gets some people moving might not motivate others. This means that the facilities and equipment that overcome accessibility barriers for some won’t necessarily help others struggling to exercise more. Here we encounter an opportunity to show active leadership and personal commitment.
Active leadership and personal commitment are skills proven to improve safety climate, which over time can solidify a positive safety culture. Active leadership is the ability to inspire action through what you do and say, while personal commitment is making sure that your people have what they need for the tasks in front of them. When it comes to keeping your workforce safe through healthier lifestyles, nothing shows more active leadership and personal commitment than investing time and resources in physical activity.
If it’s budgetarily feasible, carving out a physical activity allowance that each employee can claim and use to pay for their preferred fitness-related costs is the most direct way to show active leadership in this regard. You don’t have to subsidize a home gym for every employee either—even a small amount can make running shoes more affordable. And covering part of a fitness center membership will show that you care about workers’ health.
Of course, that kind of money might just not be available at your company. This is where you can dedicate other resources like time, space and energy to the cause, demonstrating personal commitment and leading with action. Map a 10-minute walking route inside or outside your facility and encourage employees to use it on their breaks. Start each shift with a pre-work-guided stretch to promote blood flow and prevent injuries. Give workers extra time on their lunch break a few times a week that they can use for personal physical activity. And if it’s possible, be flexible with start and end times at work to allow employees that extra wiggle room they might need to attend a fitness class or squeeze a swim, run or walk into their day. You don’t have to implement all of these suggestions—even one gesture of personal commitment can help the people in your workplace feel supported when it comes to being more physically active.
With worker well-being at all-time lows and exhaustion on the rise, now is a perfect opportunity to promote physical activity in your workplace. By taking these steps to break down the barriers to physical activities, you will be empowering your workforce with the tools to stay safe in the face of human factors and other health risks.