5 Ways Daily Exercise Can Help Your Career

The benefits of exercise on your health, fitness and wellbeing have long been reported, but did you know that there also advantages for your career?

Investec teamed up with the charity Women in Sport to research the impact that exercising has on your progression at work, with the results showing that those who played sport were far more likely to be in a high-profile role, as 77 per cent of female managers played sport to some extent. It also showed that those who exercise regularly have developed skills that help them in the workplace, including self-motivation, teamwork and managing stress.

Here are five key ways that sport can help you in the workplace...

1. Developing a confident mindset

The study found that making progress is an important part of sport: participants often need to cast a critical eye over their performance and evaluate what needs to be changed to improve. This is also true for women in business, who need to believe that they can better themselves and be able to plot out what needs to be done next.

2. Committing to goals

Playing sport can also be associated with dedication to plans for the future – a critical element to career ambition and success. Through exercise, women get experience in setting themselves targets, planning how to reach them and then staying the course, whether alone or as part of a team.

3. Managing stress and pleasure

The results indicated that sport helps women to manage potential anxieties they may be feeling at work. In our YouGov survey of senior female decision-makers, 42 per cent of those surveyed agreed that physical activity has helped them stay calm while in stressful situations at work (compared to 28 per cent who disagreed).

4. Putting things in perspective

Sport can create a distance from the unremitting intensity of daily working life. One female business leader commented, "For me, the biggest thing is that headspace – the psychological benefit. Obviously the physical benefits are huge, but for me, it just creates that disconnect between being on that day-to-day hamster wheel and being able to have clear thinking and put things into perspective."

5. Motivating others

The benefits of exercise on your health, fitness and wellbeing have long been reported, but did you know that there also advantages for your career?

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