Working Assumptions
The Many Benefits of Working Out in the Workplace
Exercise is good for your health — and your career — in more ways than one.
Riders at SoulCycle class.
Photographer: Yue Wu/The Washington Post/The Washington PostThis article is for subscribers only.
The evidence is compelling that exercise has professional advantages, which would make the working assumption that it’s de facto separate from work wrong. Time to physically work out must become sanctioned — if not mandated — in the workplace.
Research published in Harvard Business Review notes a correlation between cognitive function — which contributes to job performance — and exercise. Exercise also improves mental health. A cross-sectional study published in the Lancet Psychiatry in 2018 of 1.2 million US adults shows it reduced days of poor mental health by 43%.