By Sue Shekut, Owner, Working Well Massage, Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Wellness Coach, ACSM Personal Trainer
Most people in the United States Spend 40+ hours at work. And work today typically consists of sitting long hours at a desk in front of a computer, bent over in forward flexion, necks and shoulders straining to hold the weight of the body up. We’ve traded our active work life (toiling in the fields or doing manual labor) for a sedentary workstyle–which means our bodies don’t get much exercise while we work. It’s no surprise that obesity and “lifestyle” related diseases are on the rise. Yet what can employers do to combat this trend when the very nature of work is to have employees crank out electronic “work” via computer? Many workplaces are getting creative because they need to get the word done, but realize the costs of not providing movement and nutrition sport for their staff.
Read more to learn how workplaces can integrate and have integrated wellness programs and incentives into the workday:
• Wellness Programs Get Creative from the Wall Street Journal
• Worksite Wellness Program Uses Financial Incentives and Creative Programming to Reduce Absenteeism and Its Related Costs from the US Department of Health and Human Service’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality website.
• Health Reform Prompts Employers to get Creative with Wellness from Corporate Wellness Magazine
• Wellness Programs Get Creative from Forbes
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