Cardio Workouts Great for Combating Job Burnout, Study Says

Amy Taylor July 21, 2015

Do you work out when you are stressed? If yes, you probably have experienced the calming and mood-boosting effect of exercise during emotionally and physically draining moments like this. Not only does it lower your cortisol levels, working out also protects you from work-related burnout.

Burnout is normal at work. Doing the same task over and over again, and not having enough time for pleasurable activities and rest can really cause physical, mental and emotional stress that has a great impact on your performance.

In line with this, researchers from the University of New England explored how effective exercise can be in reducing symptoms of burnout. For their study, they recruited almost 50 formerly inactive participants between the ages of 19 and 68, two-thirds of whom were women. The subjects were grouped into three. The first group performed cardiovascular exercises, the second performed resistance training, and the third one carried on with their sedentary lifestyle.

Over the next four weeks, participants evaluated their experiences with the workout programs based on three psychological scales: 1) Subjective Exercise Experience Scale (measures a person’s responses to exercise stimuli), 2) Perceived Stress Scale (measures the degrees to which situations a person experiences feel stressful), and 3) Maslach Burnout Inventory (measures a person’s feelings of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment).

The researchers found that both cardiovascular and resistance training exercises can successfully increase well-being and sense of personal accomplishment, as well as reduce perceived stress. But cardio workouts specifically were able to decrease psychological stress and emotional exhaustion – the two key components of burnout.

Burnout is a level of stress that affects employees physically, emotionally and mentally, which leads to exhaustion and a loss of all sense of motivation. And unfortunately, it is far prevalent in UK workplaces than anyone probably imagined.

Work stress is a major problem that takes a huge health and economic toll. According to new YouGov survey commissioned by Virgin, 51 per cent of UK employees said they have experienced anxiety or ’burnout’ in their current job.

Exercising regularly can be a simple and inexpensive way to combat burnout and improve our work life.

Source of this article: How A Cardio Workout Can Improve Your Work Life