Focussing on physical activity to improve our wellbeing

Myles Wellbeing
with Parallel’s Alison Brown, Health & Wellbeing Specialist

We’ve all heard of the old adage ‘healthy body, healthy mind’ right? So if being more active is good for
the body and the mind, why are 34% men and 42% women in England not active enough for good
health? (Gov.uk)

Now this is not an exhaustive list by any means, but if you research reasons for not being more
physically active, we see things like:

• Not enough time
• Lack of motivation
• Cost of memberships

And as we come into the colder, darker months, it’s also much easier to stay in and get cosy rather
than heading outside to get the heart pumping.

So as employers or businesses how can we combat this to keep our employees happy and healthy
and get ahead of those January blues?

The first thing to note is you’re not trying to make athletes here, you’re trying to help people create
healthy, sustainable habit changes. So let’s go through each of these reasons and what we can do
about them.

Not enough time – In the UK., we spend roughly a third of our life at work, for many, much of
this sitting behind a desk. Encouraging your employees to be mindful of how long they’re
sitting by sharing simple at desk exercises can be a great little reminder. Standing desks,
another great way to get the blood flowing or even walking meetings can be a really simple
way to encourage movement as a community, which brings us nicely on to the second
reason…

Lack of motivation – There’s 2 types of motivation we’re talking about here: intrinsic and
extrinsic. If you’re struggling to find the intrinsic motivation to get yourself going, by being part
of a group that is working towards a common goal, we can boost our extrinsic motivation
levels and make real healthy changes. Great examples of this are doing company wide step
or activity challenges, competing and collaborating with your team.

Cost of memberships – Often when people hear the words ‘physical activity’ or ‘exercise’ we
envisage bustling gyms, the clanging of dumbbells hitting the floor and the constant buzz of
treadmills, but it’s really important to remember, that’s just one side of physical activity. As
individuals, we need to find what we enjoy, and even if we don’t enjoy something, if it’s
something we do regularly, recognise the physical exertion of these activities. For some
people, a simple walk is their activity of choice, others, it may be gardening or housework.
Being more active does not need to cost a fortune.

As employers, we need to do more to keep our staff active, particularly as fewer than 20% of
employees are enrolled on physical wellbeing offerings (Gympass, 2022).

Myles Wellbeing have a track record of creating happier, healthier employees. So if you’d like
more tips on how to get your teams more active and reward them for their healthy habits, head over to
www.myleswellbeing.com or drop an email to marcus@myleswellbeing.com.

For more information on how we can support you with your staff Health & Wellbeing benefits contact caroline.masterton@parallel-eb.co.uk // 020 8874 1230