Working a desk job is commonly associated with monotony. The idea is that you wake up each morning, show up to work, and go through the motions as you sit for hours. My schedule changes each day and I’m constantly moving around, which I personally love, so that sounds pretty awful to me. Luckily most corporations have started implementing programs that have changed this, so working in an office setting doesn’t have to be a complete drag.
Corporate fitness, or schedules and programs that promote physical activity in the workplace, are implemented by an employer as an incentive for employee recruitment and retention. The employer has several goals in providing health and fitness options for employees and may approach the fitness programming in a number of ways, which we’ll get to later. By equipping employees with space and tools needed to engage in and maintain an active lifestyle, employers hope to increase the amount of physical activity that employees get.
More physical activity outside of scheduled work hours means employees are less likely to call off from work, more likely to be stress-free, and will be more productive than the sedentary worker. Because physical inactivity is heavily correlated with the risk of chronic illnesses like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and cancer, employers have realized that the benefits of corporate fitness programming stretch way deeper than surface level. By providing a vehicle for better health and fitness practices, companies are able to lower health care costs, decrease sick days, and retain employees for longer.
Now, I may have made it seem like Corporate fitness only exists inside office spaces, but I happen to know first hand that corporations stretch these benefits to retail, grocery, manual labor, hospitality and food service workers. Not too long ago, I was working for one of my favorite Grocery companies as a Crew Member. This just means