Offering shower facilities and encouraging employees to walk or cycle to work or during their lunch break is a simple step toward increasing physical activity. Other cost effective strategies include encouraging stair use, replacing coffee breaks with activity breaks, offering incentives for exercise and adopting flexible hours for workers' schedules. A review of current and past work-site programs suggests that the most effective strategy is to provide a moderately well equipped fitness facility with enthusiastic leadership, an active outreach program for the sedentary employee, one on one counseling and a corporate environment that encourages a healthy lifestyle. These steps would demonstrate the employer's commitment to worker's health. It has taken the public 40 years to accept health messages about smoking and a similar period may be needed to change the activity habits of the general population.
Inactivity is as harmful to health as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoking.
Without regular physical activity, muscle mass is reduced by 5 pounds per decade of life after age 25 with a resultant decrease in metabolism. Sedentary lifestyles cause declines in bone density, cardio-respiratory function and balance. These changes are more the result of inactivity, and are not primarily due to the normal aging process. Small increases in the physical activity of the average worker will enhance public health and reduce healthcare expenditures. Let's not wait another 40 years to make the necessary changes that will encourage physical activity in the workplace and improve employee health.