Advantages of Fitness Programs
Exercise lowers weight, lowers risks of heart attack and stroke, helps to control blood pressure (BP) and diabetes, and improves mood. Studies increasingly show that exercise might also help reduce the occurrence of certain types of cancer.
Scientists at the Centers for Illness Control and Avoidance (CDC) recently documented another major advantage – exercise improves the health of the nation’s medical care expenditures.3 According to the CDC, physically active individuals incur $865 less per year in healthcare costs than inactive people .
Dr. Michael Moore, vice president and chief medical director at Nationwide Insurance in Columbus, maintains that exercise is the most effective tool in health maintenance. “If you could prescribe exercise in a pill, it’d be the number-one prescribed treatment in the world,” he said.
In step with Dr. Moore’s prescription, nearly one-third of U.S. corporations help workers pay for fitness club memberships, as reported by an Associated Press report. Subsidizing fitness club memberships is just one way corporations encourage active lifestyles.
Popular fitness-forward initiatives –
• Start a company softball or volleyball league.
• Compile and distribute information about opportunities to join athletic groups in your community.
• Offer partial or complete reimbursement for fitness facility memberships.
• Hold aerobics, karate, yoga or other types of fitness courses on-site.
• Give extended lunch hours for employees who commit to lunchtime exercise plans.
• Introduce an on-site exercise facility that is free, or available at a nominal cost, to employees and their families.
• Conduct on-site health fairs that include fitness demonstrations and promote fitness activities and resources.
Corporate Wellness Companies