Physical Exercise Is Good for Business

Reading stories of high achievers can be inspiring. Motivation can be contagious and you begin thinking, "Yeah, I can do that too!" At other times, the high achievers set the bar so high that it has the opposite effect. It's demoralizing.

The demoralizing effect nearly happened to me. I had watched the Olympics. I'd had my vicarious bobsled run. Now it was time to focus on work. I really wasn't in the mood to hear someone tell me that the way to get my business out of the doldrums was by training for a triathlon. It would be hard enough to train for one sport, and now I was being told that entrepreneurial success would come if I trained for three!

I'd have thrown in the towel then and there, but he was making good points about setting goals, strategic planning, measuring performance, planning for contingencies, and sizing up the competition. It was easy to see the parallels between being a triathlete and managing a company. His big selling points were stress reduction and enhanced concentration. What businessman couldn't benefit from a form of stress reduction that leaves him alert? Most pharmaceutical approaches can dull that winning edge, if not leave one downright comatose. I figured it was worth investigating further.

It turns out that exercise is a great stress reducer, and fortunately it doesn't necessitate mountain biking after an already vigorous swim. The basic principles for stress management can be adapted to nearly every personality type, work situation, and variety of exercise. For instance, if your job keeps you at a computer screen, strength building exercises will help reduce stress, but if you are on your feet and lifting all day long, you'll find greater benefits from stretching exercises. The brain starts releasing stress reducing endorphins after only 20 minutes of exercise, so even multitasking by taking Fido on a brisk dog walk can go a long way, literally and figuratively.

Other Advantages of De-stressing with Exercise

• Stress usually makes the heart speed up and the digestive system slow down. Exercise helps bring these back into balance.

• Repetitive movements and controlled breathing techniques have physiological effects that produce a sense of calm.

• Regular times of physical activity allow your muscles to work. Exercise releases built-up muscle tension and results in less muscle pain, fewer tension headaches, and reduction in joint pain.

• If you choose a performance-based sport as your exercise of choice, as the triathlete mentioned earlier did, then as your performance improves, your body adjusts to better handle higher levels of stress.

• Best of all, stress management through exercise has highly favorable side effects like improving sleep patterns and increasing general awareness.