This week, a damning report was released that details the detrimental health effects of sitting at a desk all day. But before we all took the plunge and went fully deskless, another piece of news came out to accompany it: Doing an hour of exercise a day reverses the negative effects of being desk-bound. As an active office, we breathed a sigh of relief.
As many of you know, we get together once a week to practice workplace yoga for an hour. This improves posture, focus and mental wellbeing, reversing the negative physical effects of desk work.
Not only this, but we have a fleet of bicycles that the team are free to use as they wish, a popular initiative that has gotten over half of the team cycling to work every day, arriving at the office feeling fit, fresh and ready for the day (especially Rick, who comes all the way from Ormskirk…). This follows our pledge to get more people walking and cycling to work as part of the citywide campaign, The 20 Effect.
The study, published in the Lancet, recommends that all office workers partake in at least an hour of physical activity a day to maintain physical and mental wellbeing, and offset the impact of sitting at a desk for long periods of time. The ill effects of prolonged periods of sitting at a desk include poor posture, slower metabolism and a shortened life span.
Following the publication of the report, our dedication to fostering an active workplace earned us the attention of ITV.
Paul Corcoran, managing director at Agent Marketing, said:
“Every business leader should do whatever it takes to look after their team. Happy and healthy people make for happy and healthy workplaces. You can’t excel at what you do unless you yourself feel excellent.
“At Agent, getting together to practice yoga for an hour each week does wonders for our team. Not only does it help keep everyone physically healthy, it’s a really fun thing for the team to do together that contributes to our friendly and positive office culture.
“When you’re sat at a desk for eight hours a day, it’s easy to lose sight of what it is you’re doing and why you’re doing it in the first place. Getting away from your desk to participate in activities that make you feel good is a wonderful way to stay focused, and really care about the work that you do each day.”
From: Agent Marketing