Amanda Mills, USCDCP
Funny exercise sessions
Does sitting around in a chair all day make you more likely to work out? Does standing at work more you less likely to head out for a jog when you get home?
Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had these questions come to mind when they took a look at national survey information about Americans' exercise habits. The answers they got were interesting—although not entirely conclusive.
They did find that people who had production jobs, meaning work that’s labor-intensive, ended up not exercising out of work as much compared to people in managerial jobs. Does that mean the labor-intensive jobs made people feel like they already got in a workout, or that the office-bound workforce craved physical activity in the off hours? Hard to say. One more thing to complicate the matter: Education level had a stronger correlation to exercise time than job type. People with a higher degree tended to meet the national exercise guidelines more than the less-educated. Even within the production jobs, those with more education tended to exercise more than those who did not.
So, does your job have an effect on how much you work out? Maybe. Sorry to be indecisive. But here’s something we all can agree on: Americans need to exercise more. The study also notes that only 43 percent of adults got the recommended amount of exercise.
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