Why work out? Very few of us seriously compete past high school or college. Why do it then? Why devote the hours to training? What’s the payoff? We’re not being compensated for our time in the gym. Not unless you believe recent studies that show that, actually, we kind of are.
Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz posit that “executives can perform successfully even if they smoke, drink and weigh too much, or lack emotional skills or a higher purpose for working. But they cannot perform to their full potential or without a cost over time—to themselves, to their families, and to the corporations for which they work.”
Everyone is an athlete
Loehr and Schwarts tested thousands of execs. They found that in order “to perform at high levels over the long haul [execs) would have to train in the same systematic, multilevel way that world-class athletes do. [Loehr & Schwartz] tested the model on thousands of executives. Their dramatically improved work performance and their enhanced health and happiness confirm the initial hypothesis.”
So working out dramatically increases the productivity, happiness and earning potential of the 99% of us who go pro in something other than sports.
Not just pro athletes.
Everyone is an athlete; and Every job stresses on the body. Basketball players suffer sore knees and twisted ankles; office workers withstand rounded shoulders and poor posture from hours at a desk.
Or back pain resulting from executive stress.
Work has a physical effect on your body. The evidence suggests that hitting the weight room, or the yoga mat, or the track, preps you to manage that allostatic load. Working out evidently adds years to your earning prime, and increased performance quality to those years.
Let me get this straight…
Working out makes me stronger, happier, healthier, better looking aaaaaand also better at my job?
And all this is backed by Peer reviewed science?
But it’s expensive. Gym memberships; training sessions… How can I afford it?
How can you not?
Indeed.