Sharpen your brain with exercise – it's the best way to fast track your business
Posted on November 05, 2016 by Gordon Green, One of Thousands of Entrepreneurship Coaches on Noomii.
It's proven that getting active will make you smarter, and less prone to depression. Would that help your business?
In my experience working with entrepreneurs, personal health is often pushed to the back burner by pressing issues of the day.
Yet we now know that investing in your physical, mental and spiritual health is one of the fastest ways to fast track your business. In fact it has been proven that exercise sharpens and enhances brain function.
Dr. John Ratey wrote a best-selling book called Spark in which he examines the importance of exercise on the brain. Dr. Ratey followed the progress of a unique fitness program at a Chicago school district where kids got involved in one hour of fitness activities on a daily basis. Not surprisingly, the kids got much fitter than average teens. But, and this is a big surprise, they also got smarter.
In global testing, these students emerged as the best science students in the world. They also came sixth in global math testing – no mean feat U.S. students were traditionally non-starters in this testing program.
Exercise is also more effective than drugs at treating anxiety and depression.
In one study, 156 severely depressed participants were recruited to take part in a four-month program in which one third received Zoloft (a powerful anti-depressant), another third took Zoloft and began exercising; and the last third did exercise only – no drugs.
After four months, all three groups were noticeably better. But guess what happened ten months later. The relapse rate for those on medication soared to 38 percent, while those taking Zoloft along with exercise experienced a 31 percent relapse rate.
For those exercising only? The relapse rate was just nine percent. Imagine how that could help you when a major client announces they are taking their business elsewhere.
Finally, let me ask you this – are sitting right now?
It turns out we are sitting ourselves to death according to Dr. James Levine, a professor of medicine at the U.S-based Mayor clinic. In his book – Get up! Why your chair is killing you and what you can do about it – Dr Levine says that sitting is more dangerous than smoking, kills more people than HIV and is more treacherous that parachuting.
I always assumed that by running or cycling every morning, I was doing all that was needed to maintain health. Not so, according to Dr. Levine.
And a new study involving more than one million adults over the age of 45 shows that people who balance sitting with exercise enjoy immense health benefits. That study is very specific – if you sit for eight hours, you must exercise for one hour daily to offset the damage.
So who has time to exercise for an hour every day?
There is an easy way to get it in. Set a timer so that you get up and walk around for 10 minutes once an hour. The 10 minutes you invest in getting away from your desk will be rewarded with higher levels of productivity while you are there. Get outside if you can just to make it even more enjoyable.
One 10-minute break at the end of each hour adds up to 70 minutes – BINGO! You’ve exceeded the target number without even breaking a sweat.
To summarize, if you want to be at the top of your game with customers, employees and anyone else critical to your business, you’ve got to take care of yourself first! Get out of that chair.
