Get Vigorous with Physical Exercise and Improve Your Well-Being at Work!

Ester Gil-Beltrán,Susana Llorens,Marisa Salanova,Isabella Meneghel

doi:10.3390/ijerph17176384

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate whether people who exercise regularly have higher levels of psychological well-being at work. Doing physical exercise is a habit that not only has consequences for physical and mental health, but it can also have positive consequences for organizations because physical exercise makes it easier for the employee to recover from physical, mental, and emotional effort during the workday, thus showing higher levels of engagement the next day. Through the analysis of structural equation models in a sample of 485 workers from different Spanish and Latin American companies, this study shows that subjects who exercise more have higher levels of vigor in physical exercise, which is positively related to high levels of well-being at work. This means that organizations that promote activities related to physical exercise among their employees are building a process of resource recovery, which, through the vigor of these activities, makes workers feel less stressed and more satisfied, thus experiencing greater well-being at work. Therefore, at a practical level, these results suggest that the practice of physical exercise is a tool for organizations that want to promote their employees’ psychological well-being.

Highlights

In the past century, the world has evolved considerably at a scientific and technological level, especially in developed countries where this progression is more evident
The results show that the scale of vigor in Physical Exercise (PE) (α = 0.75) meets the reliability criterion proposed by the scientific research [44]; the rest of the variables had one item and, reliability cannot be measured
Correlation analyses show that the variables are positively related to each other, except for the amount of time spent doing PE, which only correlates with vigor in PE

Summary

Introduction

The world has evolved considerably at a scientific and technological level, especially in developed countries where this progression is more evident. What human beings did for millions of years was dependent exclusively on their physical capacity, but today machines do this work, factories have been automated, transport has been mechanized, and even for housework, countless household appliances have been invented that are increasingly autonomous All these results have caused the physical activity that was carried out in the past to be considerably reduced [1]. 23% of the adult population and 81% of adolescents worldwide have physical activity levels that are below those necessary to maintain health and control their body weight This lack of activity can be associated with non-communicable diseases, depression and anxiety problems [3], or lack of vigor [4]. He shows that the recurrent and sustained practice of PE can lead to physical benefits at the cardiorespiratory, muscular, and bone levels, as well as reducing the risk of non-communicable diseases

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion