6 Ways Exercise Boosts Productivity In Your Career

When you are trying to lose weight or focusing on another health goal that generally involves exercise, finding time to show up for your workouts can turn out to be challenging enough. So if you have a career (or a business) that you have been working with in order to build this; it can turn out to be double whammy, as it is common that you put your work time ahead of your exercise time. Given here are a few reasons why you might want to reconsider.

Exercise keeps you alert and focused

Here is a quick lesson; exercise helps to increase the blood flow in the brain. And that sharpens the awareness. According to a study conducted by Jim McKenna from the University of Bristol, once an individual finishes exercising, the work performance is consistently seen to be higher when compared by the better time management and improved mental sharpness. A client of mine recently came across this experience during a long week leadership development program. And as a part of the program participants including the client started the day to day exercise, yoga, walking, or strength training.

Increased energy

The more and more you move, the more energized you feel. Regular physical activity helps in improving your muscle strength, boosting up your endurance, giving you the energy you need to think clearer and come up with new and different ideas. A good 15 minutes of moving around even just around the living room makes your body produce more and more energy on a cellular level.

Exercise improves mood

Need an emotional lift? Or need to blow of some steam after a stressful day? Having a work out at the gym or a brisk thirty minutes' walk can help you deal with it at ease. Physical activity helps you stimulate various brain chemicals that may help you feel happier and relaxed. You also continue to feel better in terms of your appearance when you continue to exercise on a regular basis, boosting up your confidence and improving your self-esteem.

Tracking and limiting how much time you have been spending on tasks

You might think like all others that you are pretty good at engaging how much time you have been spending on various tasks. However, research studies conducted suggests that only 17% of the people around are actually able to accurately estimate the passage of time. A tool like Rescue Time can help the employees and the other individuals by letting them know exactly and how much time you will wish to spend on daily tasks, including social, email, word processing and apps.

Stress management

Regular exercise has generally been shown to decrease the overall levels of tension, improving sleep and boosting self-esteem in an individual. It is thought that even five minutes of an aerobic exercise can stimulate the anti – anxiety effects. If you feel that you do not have enough time to put in a full cardio work out each day then even incorporating short bursts of activity in your daily life can turn out to be beneficial. You can even try out a 15 minute walk during the lunch time, or just take the stairs rather than the lift. If you don’t want to exercise alone then you can also join a fitness centre with your friend or colleague.

Just say no to meetings

Meetings are generally considered to be one of the biggest time sucks around, and yet somehow we continue to book them without asking any questions, attend them and invite others. Everybody inevitably continues to complain about them. According to Atlassian, the average office worker generally spends more than 31 hours each month during unproductive meetings. Before booking your next meeting, do ask yourself if you can accomplish the same goal or tasks via email, phone or web based meetings, and whether they will be slightly more productive enough in the long run.

About the Author

Michael is the Marketing Manager at Ampliz, specializing in email and marketing database management software, editing blogs, case studies, and guides. Beside work he is a fitness freak and a Marathon runner. He tries to make the world just a bit more pleasant enough by working on strategies that would help them prevent and eliminate spam in terms of email marketing.

So what are your best work productivity related tips? What other tips have you come across in order to maximize your own productivity at work or in the office. Do leave your thoughts and comments below. STAY STRONG!

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Rest time between sets

The truth is that different rest times can all build muscle. The best time between sets is probably the rest time you haven't been doing, because changing something as simple as rest times can shock your muscle into further growth.

The benefits of longer rest times between sets

If you typically rest for shorter periods (less than a minute) between sets, here is a list of reasons why resting a little longer might increase muscle growth.

Increased strength

Longer rest periods give your muscles more time to rest and recover, immediately increasing the amount of weight they can move and decreasing the rate at which they fail from set to set. Since more weight is moved and total time under tension (the total time the muscle is contracted against a weight) is increased, the muscle will receive more stimuli.

Less energy tax, more muscle tax

By resting more, your energy production systems are used less. This gives the body more resources and more energy to spend on building muscle tissue. More energy can be spent on generating power and building muscle, with less calories being spent on restoring cardio-vascular channels and refilling glycogen systems.

Great for bulking

As in the point above, more calories can be spent on muscle tissue instead of energy recovery. Also, glycogen levels within the muscle won't be drained as quickly as they are during shorter rest periods.

Less stress on the central nervous system

Since greater resting times will stress energy systems less and focus more on muscle tissue, the central nervous system will receive less stress. This means that you will be able to train more and be at less risk of over training. 

Keeping clear of a catabolic state

When the body is put under physical stress it releases cortisol, a stress hormone that holds onto fat cells and breaks down muscle tissue as a survival mechanism. The body does this because when it is stressed it thinks that its survival is at stake so it will rather break down muscle (which is more easily broken down than fat) to get quicker energy to get out of the alleged situation of danger as quick as possible. This is called a catabolic state, when the body breaks down muscle to feed itself. It is often advised not to train for longer than 90 minutes because longer training periods can put the body into this state. Since resting for longer periods does not stress the energy and central nervous systems as much as shorter periods, you will be able to train for much longer periods of time before the body will start breaking down muscle.

I like to take longer resting periods when I have more time I can spend in the gym and want to focus more on increasing the amount of weight my muscles can handle.

The benefits of shorter rest times between sets 

Having shorter rest periods have their benefits too. Here is a list of reasons why you should balance your programs out with shorter rest times as well:

Burns more calories

By taking shorter rest breaks, you are involving the cardio-vascular and energy systems during your weight training session as well. This means that more calories are burnt. This makes shorter rest periods a great strategy for a fat burning session (and therefore, a cutting routine).

Greater glycogen stores equal greater size

Shorter rest periods drain glycogen stores quicker than longer rest periods. The body will adapt to this by increasing the amount of glycogen stored in muscle fibers. The more glycogen stored in a muscle, the greater its size.

Increased metabolic rate

Since your energy systems are stimulated more, the body will adapt by increasing its metabolic rate. This will increase the rate at which the body burns fat for energy naturally, but also increase the rate at which muscle recovery takes place.

More damage, less time

Shorter rest times allow you to destroy your muscle in a quicker amount of time than longer repetitions. When you have limited time in the gym, this will make you more efficient at fully stimulating muscle growth in the shortest possible time.

So there you have it: both longer AND shorter resting times between sets can be beneficial to muscle growth. If you typically train using the one style, try mixing it up to shock your muscle into further growth. STAY STRONG!

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Good Gym Days And Bad Gym Days

Had A Bad Day At The Gym?

Today’s workout session was a failure. It was a terrible day at the gym; you couldn’t do the weight or the reps that you could last time. Is something wrong? And how can you stop this from happening again?

Above is an illustration that shows the typical pattern of growth. This kind of pattern can be seen in economics, price markets, relationships, business revenues, learning capabilities, physical improvements, population growth etc. For example, a business that is growing in sales rapidly will not necessarily have a better sales day than the previous one every single day. Some days will be slower than others, even though sales are generally increasing in the long run. Your body works in the same way.

Let's get back to Gym.

We have all had those days, and the good news is that it is completely normal.  They say that 80% of your workouts will be the standard, clock-in clock-out routine kind of workout; 10% of your workouts will be one of those amazing, ‘wow factor’ days where you feel like you’ve made a lot of progress in just one session and the remaining 10% of the time you will have a workout that seems to be more of a flop than anything else. If you experience a bad workout once in a while, then you have nothing to worry about. It is a part of training and just like anything else in life, your body works in a cyclical pattern, moving in a certain direction with bumps and turns along the way.

Why do we get these bad days?

There are a variety of reasons that could contribute to the difference between a good workout, a great one and a bad one. For example, these factors could include sleep, stress, mental focus, social distractions, diet (short term or long term), starting a new workout program, using the same program for too long, over training, low blood sugar levels, the kind of music that was playing, dreams you had the last time you were sleeping, mood, arousal, and hormone cycles.

Think about it this way, in two years from now, will the fact that you had a bad day at the gym make a difference? Not really. But what will matter is the fact that you worked through it and didn’t give up.

I’m having these days increasingly often, what could be the issue?

If you are having these days increasingly often, then there could be a determining factor that you need to take care of. Below of a list of the most probable causes, in order from most probable to least:

Over Training

The most common cause of decreased physical performance is, ironically, too much physical performance. Are you putting so much strain on your body that it is starting to break down? It is beneficial to take a rest day at least once a week, and have an entire week of rest once every 8-10 weeks so that your body can recover and adapt fully. Additionally, working a certain muscle group too often for it to recover between sessions will hinder muscle growth and strength.

Under Training

You could be training at an intensity that does not stimulate your muscles enough to spur on growth and adaption. Aside from that, you could be working a certain muscle group too long after it has recovered, so that it adapts and then decreases in size and strength because it does not feel the need to stay at a certain size anymore. The body is made for optimal survival, and it will decrease muscle size if it does not feel the need to keep them because muscle costs the body a lot in energy and nutrient resources to grow and maintain. Try to find a good balance between training enough, but not too much.

Diet

Diet is also one of the most common reasons for decreased performance or slowed transformation. If your body does not have the building blocks it needs, it will be unable to change. Besides building blocks, it also needs fuel for energy as well. Make sure that your macro-nutrients (carbohydrates, fats, proteins) are right for your physical output and goals. Additionally make sure that you getting the right micronutrients (minerals, amino acids, vitamins, fatty acids, etc.) to keep the body in a healthy equilibrium.

Same Program

If you have been using the same workout routine for too long, your body will start to adapt and plateau. It is considered optimal to change your program every 3-6 months for the best results. Changes can include exercises done, exercise order, workout split, rep range, intensity, duration, etc.

Sleep

Most muscle growth happens during sleep. Sleep is the body’s time to grow and recover without interference. If you are not getting enough sleep, then your body does not have the time to change and might break down muscle to fuel its other needs like mental well-being, which it will prioritise over physical transformation.

 Motivation

Studies have shown that listening to the right music has a direct effect on the amount of reps that a person can do. Additionally, men are able to lift more weights when attractive females re around them. This shows how much being in the right mental state can affect your workout.

 Stress

Exercise is good for stress and those who exercise are better able to cope with stress, but mental stress can have an impact on the body in a negative way, in-turn impacting the body’s ability to lift weight or exercise. Try to make sure that you outside-the-gym life is not stealing from your inside-the-gym life.

Too Much Junk

Expanding on the point above, there could be junk in your life that is hindering you from achieving your goals. These things can include smoking, drinking, late nights, eating habits and other distractions.

Sometimes a bad day is just a bad day. Be proud of the fact that you at least went in and had the perseverance to finish the workout regardless of how you performed. We have all had bad days, but what really matters is whether you stand up and get back to it. STAY STRONG!

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