The Corporate Athlete
posted in Home |Have you ever wondered why you can’t seem to break through those fitness barriers without picking up an injury or becoming unwell and simply knackered…? Have you ever wondered why you wake up in the morning and you would swear by the way your body feels you have put on 20kgs overnight.
Well here it is…
The average corporate or company worker in my opinion is like an athlete with excessive demands and little guidance.
And I’m not talking about exercise yet either!
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Work demands put strain on the body, long hours, and stress, sometimes physical, invariably mental. The effect of constant stress through work demands and mental energy expenditure is actually as demanding as physical stress from sports. In fact it is often more so.
In sport and exercise there are health benefits, pressure release through the cathartic effect of endorphins etc. In professional sports, there are coaches, carefully planned schedules and recovery periods.
In the business world, there is stress, pressure, performance requirements whilst being couped up in an office behind a desk for many hours.
There is nowhere to get an endorphin hit, the body is in an unnatural position and you are lucky if you have anything other then a demanding boss asking you why you look like you haven’t slept since last month.
Pressure Cooker
Stress starts to bounce around inside you like popping popcorn hammering at your insides as the temperature rises. Your body switches from its normal metabolising state and calm parasympathetic nervous system to the fight or flight sympathetic system. You get home and realise that you had promised yourself you would go for a long run. You force yourself into overdrive to hammer the pavement in the hope it will cure all.
Whereas actually the result is opposite
That’s right you will break down. The stress of work and the strain of exercise couples to reach your breaking point.
You wouldn’t expect an athlete of any standard to be able to perform without looking after their body, without thinking about nutrition or without planning their training. Why is work in a suit any different? It’s not.
The Ingredients of Sustainable Success
So to perform at your best consistently at work, reach your exercise goals and stay healthy you need to start thinking like the elite performers.
1. You need a trainer or coach to structure your program effectively. This may mean using periodisation it may mean cross training it may mean a combination of both.
2. You need to be consuming the right fuel. If you have not considered what fuel you are putting into your body then how can you expect to perform at high levels. Do you think a high performance car is going to be any better then a tractor if you feed it diesel well no you will be lucky if it functions at all.
3. Focus on recovery. If you have not thought about planned recovery time then you have no hope. Factor in some rest days, some stretching or meditation and even a holiday.
Poor Health = Poor Performance = Increased Costs
With poor performance costing companies billions of dollars per year it is about time we all realised the obvious; performance without adequate planning comes with a cost, a human cost.
So if you expect to be a high flyer and have health and fitness objectives, think about it, you are a corporate athlete with a profession as your event. Treat yourself like a high performance machine making sure you put in ALL the ingredients required and you will perform. Skip rest, nutrition, exercise or any of the ingredients and you can at best hope for 60% of what you are actually capable of and it won’t be enjoyable!
Keep an eye on The Lab for more performance tips!