If you’ve ever talked to a businessman, you are surely aware that in the modern business landscape there’s a prevalent attitude that no matter what – business comes first.
As a matter of fact, it’s the high priority that eclipses practically everything else in one’s life – including family members, close friends and especially health and fitness. The sad thing is, today, a large number of young entrepreneurs are willing to sacrifice all of those things to focus on making their business venture successful.
And don’t get me wrong – greed isn’t the main motivator behind this – because after a while, dollars become nothing more than points in the business game. So what’s it really all about? Well, most people want to feel like they are creating something important – something that could possibly change the world one day.
And that’s why it’s so easy to brush so many important things off. However, before you skip your next workout in favor of a business meeting, there are a couple of things you need to keep in mind.
Lack of Physical Activity – A Global Pandemic
As out little subtitle above suggests, in the last couple of years, researchers have discovered that physical inactivity has become a pandemic on a global scale.
As Time reports, according to a series of papers published in the Lancet Journal, lack of exercise causes around 10% of premature deaths around the globe each year. The same researchers also indicated that smoking takes roughly as many lives, which brings us to a sad but a true and simple fact – lack of exercise is as deadly as smoking.
On the other hand, regular exercise can lower the risk of a number of factors, including high blood pressure, sugar and cholesterol, which in turn lowers the risk of diseases such as diabetes, colon cancer and heart disease, just to name a few. If you take a look at current government guidelines, experts recommend at least 150 minutes of exercise per week.
Some of you are probably thinking that with your difficult schedules, how can a person even manage to get the minimal amount of recommended exercise?
Balancing your Work Life and Exercising
It’s actually much easier than you think. Basically, all you need to do is take a few steps to maximize your workouts during the week and you’ll have enough time to concentrate on your work and work on your body at the same time.
• Prepare Meals In Advance
You already know that your diet is almost as important to your fitness goals as actual workouts. But you probably think you don’t have enough time to prepare healthy meals every day before work. Actually, all you need to do is pick one day during the weekend, and prepare post-workout meals for the full week. And if you don’t have enough time to go shopping, simply use a meal prep service like Home Chef.
• Set Up a Quick Strength Routine
Some people hit the gym for an hour or two every day. But while this may recommendable for athletes, there’s no need for a two-hour workout – especially if you’re up against serious deadlines. Instead, you should shorten your workouts to 15 or 30 minutes and combine them with a little cardio and yoga. A smart thing would be to look into the ever-popular HIIT workouts.
• Set and Complete a Pushup Goal
It doesn’t matter if your upper body strength needs some work or not – working toward a certain goal will provide you a great way to add small bursts of physical activity throughout your day. Furthermore, this little exercises will also beef up your chest are and strength and girth to your shoulders and triceps. And don’t be ashamed to start with something small like 20 or 30 pushups.
Final Thoughts
Before you start implementing the tips we listed above, here you have a couple of things you should always keep in mind.
For starters, if you start ignoring your workout session, your health will go downhill in a matter of few years (maybe even months). And with the loss of physical health, your productivity at the office will definitely go down.
All of that can easily lead to depression, which will because you lose the motivation and concentration you need to do the things that make your business successful. Simply put, excellence in one area of your life will promote excellence in all other areas.
Finally, exercise is perhaps the easiest area of your life you can control, so naturally, if you manage to control it properly, it will lift up other areas – including your work life.
By Adam Ferraresi
Since the first moment he logged online, Adam knew that wanted to work with computer for a living, and fifteen years, later he is making his living as a web developer. He’s also quite successful at it, and you can read his articles about his biggest passion atwefollowtech.com.