Green Exercise Offers Health Promotion Managers a New Way to Help Employees Thrive

Sept. 2, 2011 - PRLog -- Health Enhancement Systems (www.HealthEnhancementSystems.com) announces the release of A Healthy Dose of Nature Is Good for Business: Promoting Green Exercise for Employee Well-Being  — a free white paper available at http://whitepapers.hesonline.com/green.

Worksite wellness programs typically promote physical activity through onsite fitness classes or gyms, walking campaigns, or discounted health club memberships. But many employees — and their dependents — are still sedentary, and therefore at increased risk for diseases such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity), over half of all Americans don’t get enough exercise to reap the health benefits, and 33% get no leisure-time physical activity at all. In addition, US workers are in increasingly sedentary jobs — on average, burning 100 fewer calories a day than they did 50 years ago. Helping employees be more physically active is no longer just a trendy wellness offering; it’s a business imperative.

Yet traditional strategies for promoting physical activity aren’t achieving the desired results. Green exercise — in the presence of nature — offers employers a powerful new health promotion tool.  It combines the mental and physical benefits of being active with the psychological and physical rewards of exposure to nature — a synergy that adds up to healthier, happier employees who are more likely to stay fit:

•   People are naturally drawn to green space and water. Encouraging green exercise taps into the built-in appeal of natural surroundings to help make physical activity a daily habit.
•   Outdoor exercise is often reported to be more refreshing, restorative, and enjoyable than indoor exercise. It also leads to a higher intent to exercise in the future.
•   Even without exercise, exposure to natural surroundings has been linked to shorter hospital stays, reduced blood pressure, decreased physical signs of stress, improved mood and brain function, a stronger immune system, and even longevity.

Most corporate wellness programs already promote physical activity — so adding green exercise messages to the mix is a practical, promising strategy for helping employees stay active.

Because green exercise improves overall health and reduces health risks — more so than ordinary exercise — integrating those messages with existing wellness initiatives can help employers make the most of limited health promotion resources to maximize efficiency and return on investment. Opportunities — such as sponsored outdoor recreation events — for employees and their families to be active while engaging with nature also create a competitive advantage, with increased appeal to potential employees and business partners.

The white paper presents a concise, compelling summary of relevant research to help corporate wellness managers, human resources staff, and executive leadership understand the potential impact of this strategy. For easy reference, it outlines the health benefits of both green exercise and exposure to nature, along with several suggestions for activities to encourage participation at work and at home.

“Encouraging employees and their families to be active while enjoying nature’s beauty and restorative qualities is an easy, effective way to help build a worksite health culture,” notes Dean Witherspoon, CEO and founder of Health Enhancement Systems. “Green exercise works wonders to enhance well-being, above and beyond the benefits of indoor exercise — and it’s more enjoyable, so people are more likely to stick with it. Making green exercise a key corporate wellness strategy is a way to get people moving and keep them moving — while increasing productivity and controlling healthcare costs.”

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Health Enhancement Systems creates employee wellness programs for organizations in North America and throughout the world. More than 20 effective, engaging HES health promotion campaigns have been adopted by over a thousand organizations — serving hundreds of thousands of participants successfully.

The green exercise white paper can be found at: http://whitepapers.hesonline.com/green.

For more information about Health Enhancement Systems, visit http://www.HealthEnhancementSystems.com or call 800.326.2317.