Our work day is like a ‘W’ according to exercise physiologist, Professor Timothy Olds of the University of South Australia.
Professor Olds and his team of researchers asked a large number of participants to rate how much they enjoyed each activity they undertook during their day out of 10. The result was what Professor Olds calls ‘the W pattern’.
“If you look at the pattern of this over the course of a work day, it follows a very characteristic ‘W’. You start off quite happy and then it just goes down and reaches its very bottom when you arrive at work,” he says.
“It slowly rises as lunch time draws near but after lunch it goes right back down again. As home time gets closer and you’re just about to leave, it goes up again.
“The W pattern clearly shows that physical activity in the leisure domain is far more enjoyable than that undertaken at work.
“It is common sense – a person walking to work alone on a cold, rainy day to a job she is not very enthused about is not going to experience the same health benefits as when sh is walking, at the exact same pace and for the exact same distance, along the beach with someone she loves.”
Professor Olds hopes the research will influence national guideline recommendations on physical activity.
“The national guidelines suggest that you should aim for 30 minutes of physical activity every day. But there’s no mention at all of the type of physical activity or the context in which you do it,” he says.
“I believe those guidelines should suggest that while any kind of physical activity is good, for the best results the physical activity should be something you enjoy rather than a chore, it should be done with other people and ideally it should provide some exposure to nature.”
This weekend, Professor Olds suggests:
- take the dog and the kids to the park
- kick a ball around with your children or some mates
- take a stroll along a beach (even in winter)
- go for a bike ride
- go for a walk in a national park
- attend an outdoor yoga class.
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