Reducing workplace burnout: the benefits of exercise
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
> Cardiovascular exercise was found to increase well-being and decrease psychological distress, perceived stress, and emotional exhaustion. Resistance training was noticeably effective in increasing well-being and personal accomplishment and to reduce perceived stress.
and
> Different types of exercise may assist employees in different ways.
I've always been told that exercise improves feelings of well-being, reduces stress, etc. I've never heard about the different effects that different types of exercise can have on the psyche -- although it makes sense, for example, that improving at resistance training would lead to a sense of accomplishment. If taken to its logical conclusion, this study implies that we should be working out in different ways based on the psychological ailments we may be experiencing. That's fascinating to me.
It's not just a sense of accomplishment, it's an actual accomplishment: to be a stronger human being than you once was. And unlike most other accomplishment in life, you're not under anyone's whim or circumstantial luck. There were a big thread on HN just a few months ago on that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9782083
It's very easy to measure progress when you're lifting. You're putting more on, the numbers are going up. Lifting more weight leads to being able to lift more weight. The path from "lift less" to "lift more" is obvious, easy to measure, and feels a bit like building an MMORPG character.
For running the gains are a lot slower and less correlated to your training. Running 2 minutes faster today than three months ago also doesn't feel as significant as squatting 50kg more than three months ago does.
2. I think you're pretty off base. The gains for running are just as correlated to your training, and (IMO, obviously, it's unquantifiable) a 10% speed improvement feels exactly as good as a 10% weight increase.
(For reference, I've been a medium good runner and lifter: at my various peaks I've run consistent sub-18 5ks and squatted 5x315lbs)
This is absolutely untrue, and purely personal anecdotes. Otherwise agree with your first two paragraphs.
I did make very very quick gains by "just lifting" and so felt very differently about it. These gains were both in strength and body composition, and within only a few months I found that I could impress people. Not at all like running: it's years and I still can't run an 8-minute mile.
I've lifted and run at various times in my life, and I found running a lot more rewarding, especially with all of the bad advice out there that surrounds lifting.
After the past 5 years of mostly running (with some time away at times due to injuries), I went from a 12 minute mile to a sub-7 minute mile in 3 years (with 1 year not doing much in the way of exercise). Consistency with the frequency of exercise matters a lot.
A 5 minute difference. Which is amazing. But only to other runners.
Going from a 50kg (110lbs) squat to a 130kg squat (286lbs) in 3 years is almost trivially doable (I've once gone from 50kg to 100kg in 3 months) and is impressive to everyone.
As much as we'd like our motivations to be pure, we really really really like impressing our friends.
One of the reasons why weight lifting makes the process more obvious is that lifting is inherently a high intensity workout.
I'm a runner and have found absolutely fantastic feelings of accomplishment and pride, as well as an undeniably healthier and happier lifestyle.
I suspect, as Swizec implied below, it mostly perception. Many runners tend to be less quantitative about performance gains, and therefore have less obvious metrics for advancement.
Does lead to an interesting corollary: does 'gamification' and quantification of athletic advancement improve retention of the habit?
I'm afraid I don't share your perspective, runners can easily get performance feedback without going overboard with fancy and shiny gadgets.
I'm a regular runner and I live in a coastal city and I frequently take my runs by the seaside. I start at a fixed point and set my finish point within the confines of a certain district/neighborhood and when I can complete the race as I had predicted, I consider this to be success and progress. Sometimes, I set instead a time limit to cover a certain distance and see if I could make it within that limit.
So, no runners can certainly measure their progress and performance improvements/shortcomings in very simple metrics if they so desire.
Half-marathon fun facts snapshot:
Since 2000, the number of half-marathon finishers in this country has quadrupled (482,000 to 1,960,000) or an impressive increase of 307%. For the first time in history, 61% of U.S. half-marathon finishers were females (approximately 1,196,000, a record), the highest proportion of any race distance. Although their percent fell to 39%, there was also a record 764,000 male finishers last year. Also, in 2013, there were 34 U.S. half-marathons with 10,000 or more finishers (second highest total ever). This data point has doubled since 2009 when there were 17 with 10,000-plus finishers, and in 2000, there was only one. For the year, there were a total of 42 half-marathons that make up the Top 100 U.S. timed road race list with 15 of them from the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series. The Nike Women's event in Washington, DC last April was the largest inaugural annual half-marathon ever with 14,478 finishers. Since 2010, 13.1 miles has been the second most popular distance by finishers behind the 5K. According to Running USA's 2013 National Runner Survey, the half-marathon distance is the favorite race distance by core runners nationwide (preferred 38% by men and 43% by women). Last year, there were more than 2,100 active U.S. half-marathons (final road race numbers to be released in an upcoming State of the Sport Report). Per our count, October hosted the most U.S. half-marathons (288), while January had the least (83) in 2013. October 2013 also produced the most 13.1 mile finishers with more than 312,000 and July the least finishers with just under 53,000. http://www.runningusa.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=news.details&...
http://www.runningusa.org/statistics http://www.runningusa.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=news.details&...
> There are an enormous number of folks that compete in
> races and are timed
With lifting weights, you lift a specified fixed numerical quantity that generally you need to record so you lift the same or more the week after.
I'm a sprinter, so I do take a quantitative approach to running.
I also lift weights, and I would say that I do so seriously. But my weights are my own body and big rice sacks filled with water bottles that I heave around in various ways until I'm tired. I'm an experienced enough athlete to know when I'm hitting my limits, without following any specific metric.
Could have something to do with the hormones and neurotransmitters that the body gets flooded with after lifting, could just be light-headed, could be something to do with all the tiny muscle tears...not entirely sure.
On the flip side, I'm a bigger guy(6'5"), and I just feel beat down and ache for days if I do any substantial distance running.
Sprinting though, seems to have similar physiological symptoms as lifting, and I believe several studies have shown that intensity rather than duration of exercise produces these effects.
Have also done a good amount of biking but haven't lived in an area that's safe for it in a while.
Of course, it's different if you're constantly doing 1RMs, but I doubt your workout consists solely of that.
Off the top of my head I can't think of any other major exercises that require a spotter. Squats maybe? But for those you can just use a smith machine.
I used to only go to the gym when I had a friend to go with (this was back in college so it wasn't a huge pain). Starting to go by myself was the best change I ever made. Not being beholden to another's schedule for your own wellbeing is a glorious thing indeed.
With a smith machine, you don't get the full range of motion you have with real barbell squats - it's straight-line up and down. I also am not a fan of the twisting motion you need to perform to get the bar locked in.
Endorphins are often given as a reason for why exercise makes people feel better. But when you give people an endorphin blocker (so the endorphins can't have any effect) you still get reports that exercise helped those people.
There are about 12 possible plausible mechanisms of action for why exercise may help improve mood. Thermo-regulation is another that seems promising.
Or when you snowboard instead of a slalom you go just straight reaching 50-60 km/h with the board... Or after a big jump... (or when you understand that there's no place to go and you're gonna crash no matter what :-P ).
There are really, very few things that can be compared with a pure adrenaline rush.
I have the impression that there's' a trade-off between effectiveness and safety though, and this advice is pretty far towards the safe side of the spectrum.
Barbell training is quite safe if you learn proper technique.
Also, if strength is a goal, it's very difficult to work with heavier weights without a bar.
And yes, I do have horrible technique. And since I don't have a personal trainer, no one is ever going to tell me when my technique slips, so I'd rather not rely on it.
The others where loading up machines with weights I could not have moved if it weren't for the fixed movement plane of the machine, that ultimately meant trouble for my lower back (leg press) and grinding in my knees (leg extensions).
I'd recommend doing the big 3, but starting off light. Focus on improving the movement. Record yourself, fix your form, develop awareness of your body position (for example - what does "butt tucked in" feel like?) and learn how to dump the bar if something goes wrong.
Above all: don't let your ego get in the way. There's a fine line between "just one more" and "one too many".
I get the same from full out, pumping-every-last-muscle-fiber sprinting too. It's something about the all-encompassing physicality of it - the brain almost goes into an instinct mode and all you can focus on is going as fast as possible, there's no room for anything else. Talk about a perfect way to get your mind off something!
I think though, for me, the best thing to do is a reasonable distance run (5k +) with a full-out sprint finish. During the distance part you get to really chew over whatever it is that you have to think about or that's stressing you out - then the sprint finish gives you a kind of catharsis at the end where, as above, you forget all about everything else for a minute or so and just, push!
Afterwards you feel so great that everyday stresses just fall away. Very few things feel nicer than being able to just stop, breathe, and walk slowly after a 5k with a sprint finish!
Running makes you (well, me at least) feel like you have outlasted something. You have endured and overcome.
Both are accomplishments, but feel different. I feel much more like shouting & strutting in triumph in the first case than the second :)
Schwarzenegger at one point famously (in "Pumping Iron") described it as better than having an orgasm, and it's hard not to agree.
I haven't done much running, but when I have, I've never felt anything similar - breaking personal records when running would leave me wanting to collapse in a heap on the ground. Breaking personal records when lifting tends to make me walk around like I'd just broken a world record and everyone was watching.
The variety of human experience is massive, some people are tetrachromats, some can't visualise at all, some can't experience romantic love.
Completely unrelated, but this struck me.. is this an actual thing? I have a lot of difficulty believing it
Lifting should stimulate testosterone production to some degree.
Endurance exercise should trigger endorphin releases.
Interesting!
I know that the progress may be mesured in aerobic excercise as well (by measuring time it takes to cover specific distance), but time is an abstract concept, and the bar with weights can be seen with the naked eye.
Productivity vs Hourly Wage [0]
GDP vs Median household income [1]
[0] http://www.decisionsonevidence.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/0...
[1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e2/US_GDP_per_ca...
I think that's the very definition of improving their well being on the whole. That there may be other ways to produce similar results, e.g. higher wages or less overall work hours (work/life balance) is not a counter point to the effectiveness of this particular method of accomplishing the same.
On a side, even animals with no external pressures to work show increased levels of stress from inactivity.[1] Most animals like ourselves are simply not made for sedentary life styles. So much of our mental and physical well being requires physical activity of some kind in order to produce the chemicals needed for life satiety. There's such a mountain of evidence supporting this that studies like the above aren't even very interesting anymore.
After basic necessities are met, healthy diet; moderate, regular exercise; and a sense of value and impact for one's work.
Those are the not really that secret sauce to a fulfilled life. We've known this for a long time now.
Oh yeah, and no legally mandated paid sick time, or vacation time. That'll add up to burnout ultra quick. There are also very few controls on how many hours they can physically make you work, and very few controls on how/when they can schedule you to work.
Gotta work indefinitely for less and less with no real control over when or for how long you work, and you're a few mistakes from being cut loose. For many people paid by the hour (and quite a few salaried people too), that is the reality. Did I mention that in the US people get their health insurance from work, vastly increasing the stakes of holding down a job? Not being able to afford a doctor when you're unemployed adds a lot of stress when you are employed-- and that's assuming you don't have kids.
I guess exercising on the job is a pretty big improvement, if those poor conditions are what you're facing. I really wish that more places would actively set aside time during the normal 8 hour (including an hour for lunch) workday for exercising.
Really, this whole country needs to have a sit down and re-enshrine basic equality, basic labor laws, and basic decency. This process will be like pulling teeth, because the capitalists at the wheel consider workers rights to be anti-profit. It probably won't happen unless someone like Sanders gets elected, to be blunt.
"My employer provides paid time off which I can use for vacation or illness. Will my employer have to provide additional sick leave?
No, as long as your employer provides at least 24 hours per year of paid leave that can be used for health care and meets other requirements in the law."
Inflation so far is 2015 is well below 1%, and 2014 was 0.8%[0]. The PDF in the GP shows an average salary increase in tech is about 2x inflation for 2014 (but half of those increases are raises and only a quarter are from changing employers).
But more importantly, how is knowing that you could pick up and go somewhere else for a 10-20%+ raise going to increase burnout? Either your pay at your current job is enough to warrant whatever stressors you may have, or it's not. I'd be in a much worse place emotionally if it was either my current job or the poor house.
[0] http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-infla...
https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2015/08/31/apple-watch-last-wee...
Being a sedentary software developer can take its toll.
Yesterday, my Apple Watch had me at 1600 active calories. I cycled for an hour and walked just under 10 miles.
It's hard to believe there still aren't enough hours in the day. I don't think I've ever had job burnout. However,I did get a little tired of working on my little app.
I've simply been on a mission since July 6th to get back into shape. It's not forever. I'm simply explaining that I feel much better and more relaxed than 2.5 months ago. If you're in halfway decent shape just run. A slow 3 mile jog always felt great. Hopefully I'll be back to that sometime this year.
Even jogging eliminates most of the (overstated) health risks of consistent running (e.g. joint issues).
The goal is to lose 25 pounds then try another C25k again.
Twenty years ago I could just go out 4 days a week and run a little farther every day. I could drop 20lbs in a few months.
Most people can walk 10 miles a day (you might get a big blister like me) without a problem.
Additionally, for people who experience joint issues, I'm sure the risks aren't at all overstated.
By trying to walk a certain number of calories daily, you might be healthier.
I was also attempting to target those of us who simply enjoy the process and outcomes of a walk, and don't get the same benefits from running or jogging. When I run or jog, which is rare because I detest it (but love spending serious time lifting and training other ways), I'm always focused on my body, on pushing myself, on my breathing, etc.
When I walk, I can go forever and forget about my body. I get lost in thinking, reflecting, processing, etc. Walking is pure joy. Sure, it has positive physical effects. But I particularly seek the peace of mind that comes from going on walks. It's something I enjoy so much, I often pick my travel destinations based on how much walking I can do while exploring a new place. Walking has long been almost like meditation for me.
Australia is just coming off its biggest economic boom in history. Its had 24 years of constant growth and average unemployment over the last 5 years has been at historically low levels.
Worker rights are pretty different in Australia compared to the US too.
The Australian economy has problems, but they are different to the US economy.
I think the grandparent poster's point had some validity.
Not only one gets a favorable tax treatment for long-term capital gains, they can also choose when to trigger those tax events, selling over 40 years instead of one swift transaction.
Organisations wishing to proactively reduce burnout can do so by encouraging their employees to access regular exercise programs.
My brain translates the suggestion into real-world application, which in the US seems to go like this:
Organisations wishing to proactively increase wellness metrics and reduce their expenditures can do so by instituting highly invasive biometric screening programs and jacking up premiums, while offering no actual time or fiscal incentive to join a gym or exercise independently.
Quick apology if that sounds terribly cynical, but it seems like the go-to path by businesses. I say this as a person who feels grateful to have a job where I can go home and work out for 20 minutes 3 times during the work week. Also, I know that eating "better" takes time and effort both in the sourcing and production of materials, which may or may not be less expensive to the individual in the short/long term.
They change an action with the goal of reducing stress into something that creates more stress. And even spend some money doing it (it's just cheaper than the real thing, but still costs). Nobody gains.
You did make me realize though that I feel a bit like a sucker for paying higher premiums and spending my own money on supplements and workout stuff simply because I won't let my employer hire somebody to review my biological information on a sheet of paper devoid of individual context.
I mean, I'd love to be on equal footing with an employer. "Sure, you can look at my health records and tell me areas to improve, no problem. You're going to have to let me review internal financial metrics for places where you can cut back on some things and pay me more though." Fair is fair haha.
That said, I fear the outcome of their recommendation:
> Organisations wishing to proactively reduce burnout can do so by encouraging their employees to access regular exercise programs.
If burnout is prevalent enough among an organisation's workforce for "proactively reducing" it to be strategically worthwhile, that suggests it would be much more important to introspect on why they are burning out so many of their employees in the first place. e.g. does your culture explicitly value "hard work", which can turn into encouraging unpaid overtime? When you celebrate hitting deadlines, do you look back on whether it was thanks to good planning or "crunch mode"? Do people understand the reasons for decisions that affect them?
Not that these are easy problems to fix, but I'd hate to see companies start thinking burnout is something that can be "fixed" with a gym discount and workout incentive schemes.
I agree, but dedicated time for exercise in the existing workday could go a long way.
And it doesn't have to just be exercise: I used to work for a company where the one of the directors of development (60-80 people under him) would go for walks and people could come along to discuss work topics. Another manager I worked for at a different employer would have walking meetings where the whole team would get up and discuss current problems from tasks they were working on, etc.
I know we have someone with cerebral palsy who definitely would struggle to take part.
If I found the majority of employees just abused the gift; I would squash the program.
I have used exercise as a drug my entire life. Started in 5th grade, and kept running. I don't run like I used too, but still get in daily rigorous walks. In my late forties, I didn't exercise--for various reasons. I have further found exercise does help with anxiety, but I had some bouts of anxiety that didn't respond to any exercise. Anxiety so bad only drugs seemed to help. Everyone chemistry is different though?
I don't know if this is common in Japan or just a Studio Ghibli practice, but I was impressed with the idea of it.
I was stationed there for some years and when we were in port the Japanese workers on the base would all line up outside their offices, sometimes turn on a little workout music, and one or two would lead in stretching and movement exercises.
I'm sure they saw all the sailors looking and some laughing, but I think the joke was on us, ha!
I used to never go to a gym, and I'd be lucky if I could convince myself to do some bicep curls and situps/pushups at home in-between rounds of various games I play. I have weak discipline in that area. I've always had a high metabolism to the point where I was "scrawny", so I would never get fat from not working out, but I definitely felt the drain on my energy, and overall physical fitness and strength.
Since starting at this company, while I've lost 15 pounds (not something skinny people typically aim for), I've gained a ton of muscle, and am physically in the best shape I've been in my entire life.
The confidence that comes from that is one thing, but the increased energy and how it has helped me focus on work while reducing stress from juggling many balls are side benefits that were completely unexpected, and perhaps the greatest benefits. The fact that it was so noticeable to me was what really blew me away--it was literally night and day.
TBH, I likely wouldn't do this though if we just had the gym and no trainers--I'm one of those folks who needs someone giving them instructions in the gym and yelling at them when they are slacking or doing it wrong. I'd wager that this has driven a significant productivity boost for myself (and likely others here) because of the overall increase in energy. I also end up focusing on tough work problems I'm trying to solve during my workouts because of the amazing increase in focus I have, and it is amazing to be able to focus with that level of clarity.
It also probably helps cut down indirectly on insurance claims which is a nice plus.
In this day and age of always being connected, and having 50 million things to juggle at once, it is easy to be overwhelmed. There's something about a solid workout that just forces all of these extraneous thoughts from your head and lets you focus on 1-2 things that I personally attribute to helping reduce the risk of burnout.
The flip-side of course is ensuring proper work/life balance, and I'd say that is pretty healthy here as well (and was one of the deciding factors in me choosing to work here vs. elsewhere). Companies really need to embrace it and promote it as part of their culture, otherwise it becomes one of those things that they need to try to fit in along with everything else in an unsustainable way.
This is a small sample size study that only lasted 4 weeks. Anecdotally, longer duration exercise regimes can themselves result in burnout-- it's hard to make it a habit.
Perhaps the takeaway here is that a short-term exercise regimes can serve to distract you from the work that is burning you out?
You will feel better; both physically and mentally. Positive habit leads to more positive habit. Pay attention to how you feel. You don't need scientific studies to prove these things are "good" for you.
i'm simply unable to do it myself without the external personal and financial accountability. but once the money changes hands, i look at it like a business transaction / work and it taps into a different set of motivations in my head.
if you've had false starts and other trouble getting on a resistance and cardio program, try hiring a good trainer. if you're intrinsically motivated to be fit, count your blessings.
And if you're not (can I have your job?), you're probably less likely to be burning out.
FIND BALANCE!
Once you're burnt out it's hard to not have the same thoughts and feelings after you change jobs (or roles/habits, finish school etc.).
My health has definitely taken a downhill turn... before I was at the gym 3/4 times a week, plus bike rides. Now it's one or two, and that comes at the cost of being able to do other things.
I definitely agree with this article.
You can honestly say to potential future employers that this job is just a poor fit. Better to cut your losses early (and save your health) rather than tough it out for something others may not even care about.
Start looking for another job ASAP. Raise your salary expectations to at least 10% over what you make now. Name a figure at least 15% higher early in negotiations, if you get cornered in to picking a number first. Consider going higher than these minimums. 20%. Maybe 25%. Don't drop your starting bid until you've failed to land at least two jobs due solely to salary expectation mismatches.
You may be surprised at how accepting people are of a slightly-nicer-worded version of "why do I want to leave so soon? The job is shit, that's why", especially if you can frame it as "it's not advancing my career as I expected blah blah blah". And really, six months isn't that bad. I know lots of very successful people with multiple entries like that in their work history.
Since you can't really use anyone where you are now as a reference anyway (not for this particular job search, at least), if you haven't already been explicitly told you have to work 10-12 hours, consider cutting back to 8 hours/day cold-turkey and using the time you save to recover and to look for a job, at least until someone complains.
(I'm assuming you're in tech and don't live in the middle of no-where. Hell, I do live in the middle of no-where by many people's standards, and anyone with even a hint of talent gets snapped up here fast. Job openings as far as the eye can see. It won't last forever—move while you can. It's musical chairs.)
If I couldn't make that schedule work then I would work less. The idea of giving up lifting is a non-starter for me.
WRT finding time to exercise, I go to the gym for an hour over lunch: 10 mins running, 30 mins doing weights and using various machines and another 10 mins running to wind down, then shower and back to work for the afternoon. Other days I go to the climbing wall and have an hour on the bouldering wall. Then back to the desk.
I also usually cycle to work. The physical exercise makes me feel overall much better both physically and mentally. I can really tell the difference if I don't do anything for a few days. Physical exercise definitely reduces my stress.
Not very many. I would definitely love to leave at 5, and I know that this would make me more productive - in total! - not just per hour, but I don't want to deal with the fallout from it, since everyone else stays until after 7:30.
I tend to get in at 8-9, while others come in 9-10, but no one can tell how early I was in. As is, I'm already typically among the earliest leaving, and it already feels weird.
I spent a year working 12 hour day and night shifts, so I can certainly sympathise with the hours. I got a 6 mile cycle each way and wasn't entirely desk bound then (industrial laboratory) so physical exercise wasn't an issue.
My stress and anxiety (had serious anxiety since 2012 - drugs did nothing to help) have been reduced drastically. It's very strange because generalized anxiety disorder is more of an epinephrine issue, but when you have it it feels very much mental. It's not until you start finding relief from working out that you start to accept that it is truly a physiological issue. All the fears (worrying about loved ones, worrying about having some disease, worrying about job security, etc.) just fade away with each new workout. It just takes a couple months to get to this point.
Well, sure, you're temporarily solving the dependent problem of discomfort from the stress caused by problems, which is a problem itself.
You have to use the sense of well-being as a motivator to actually confront problems when you come back from the roads or trails, rather than as a "drug" to escape from them.
Physical activity is not just escapism...
Exercise isn't just a calorie-intensive vacation for your brain, it's an overall enhancement for life.
The problem goes away after a week or two if I quit completely; it's caused by the exercise.
Basically all the strictly positive stuff you hear, though not wrong in and of itself, is a rather unbalanced view spread by people who don't actually exercise, or not a whole lot.
It's like eating healthy food. It's a habit you take up to help prevent situations from developing.
So the question is how, do we make it so that people want to get of their ass and exercise? Considering the general state of health in most first world countries (especially given the recent news that half of US adults are either diabetic or pre-diabetic), this may very well be the question in public health.
And yet we almost never see any research about this.
Sell it in a pill, or sell a service so that someone else can do the hard work for me, or otherwise sell a gadget I strap around me and it works "me" out. /s
In other words, pigritia imperat - laziness rules.
More seriously, people will exercise if you can distract them from the fact that they are exercising. Once those immersive first-person shooters become cheaper you might see a change.
Made a huge difference for me. Being able to get in exercise without having to think about made it fundamentally more effective than any other lifestyle change. It's also upped my energy level to the point that I seek other forms of exercise and activity.
The barrier besides cost and space is getting people to ramp up slowly enough that they are successful and don't hurt themselves. A treadmill that automates the amount of walking you do and and takes into account how you report feeling and how much experience you have would make that possible.
If your desk provided you feedback and metrics and you gamified it a bit I'll bet you could solve the motivation issue for a good chunk of the population. I've encountered many people who haven't used a treadmill desk full time who think it wouldn't work for them, but never someone who has tried it and failed. I don't know how strongly survivor biased that is.
I think it's a public health issue and it's in the best interest of the government and insurers to reduce costs down the road by driving change today. I really think what we are doing today is borrowing from our future selves and society (by way of medicare).
Denmark has one of the lowest obesity rates in Europe.
There are some statistics relating to walking/cycling/public transport in this paper, but I haven't read it properly yet: http://www.cycle-helmets.com/walk-bike-obesity-rates.pdf
how, do we make it so that people want to get
of their ass and exercise?
I'm not saying it necessarily has to be a video game.
A lot of people would love sports if they had a local, easily accessible, and judgement-free chance to play them.
I think very few people have the mindset to do grueling, non-fun workouts on a regular and lifelong basis. And you know what? Nobody really should, either. There are so many fun ways to do it.
Uhhh, no thanks.
I exercise twice weekly, and spend around 2 hours on my own projects - purely so I am stonger, both physically and mentally - which'll lead me to higher paying work in the future (not to mention I love my pet projects!).
My employers know that at 5:30, I down tools and under no circumstances, will respond to any calls/emails until 9am the following morning.
Do what you do for you, not for anyone else.