Why You Should Change the Beat of Your Wellness Program to Get Your Employees to Tune In
You’ve probably felt it before – your pace picks up, you jump a little higher, or maybe you are actually enjoying your jog – exercise just feels more effortless when your playlist clicks to your favorite song. Consequently, music can motivate your employees to exercise more.
In a recent study, college students who listened to a music player while exercising reported that it helped them work out longer, improved their performance and made exercise seem easier.
Other studies show similar fitness results:
- Tunes with fast tempos can motivate people to bike harder.
- Jamming while at the gym can extend one’s workout endurance, even when walking on a treadmill.
- Exercisers might recover faster with music.
Aside from promoting more exercise, health benefits tied to music range from easing pain and improving mood while driving to helping you sleep better. Music has also been credited with alleviating symptoms of depression, increasing vascular function, and even assisting in the intricate process of regulating metabolism and energy balance.
Help Your Employees Motivate With Music
Encourage your employees to turn up their favorite tunes while working out so they can reap the many benefits of regular physical activity. Here is a springboard of ideas:
- Incorporate headphones in your next physical activity challenge.
Make headphones or inexpensive ear buds a prize or randomized raffle giveaway during your next walking challenge, for example. - Study your workforce.
With all the research supporting music’s benefits for exercise, you might want to run a small study to see if your employees feel those benefits. Ask them how they feel after working out with music, compared to working out without it. - Share favorite motivating songs on your social media during your next wellness challenge.
If you can’t access free music files online to share, there is a bounty of online music videos that will at least introduce your employees to the upbeat song you want to offer. Your employees can always download the song on their home devices. Invite them to post their favorite workout songs, too. You could appoint a team member to compile a list of recommended songs. (We suggest creating a CD of these songs to share with your employees.) - Host a live band and raise money for a health-related cause.
Take music one step further and invite a local or popular band (depending on your wellness program budget) to play uplifting music while employees participate in a charitable walk-a-thon or kickball tournament, for example. - Encourage employees to listen to music while working (with headphones of course). Share free online music player resources with your employees. This is an easy way to create playlists and share songs.
- Play music in your fitness center (provided you have one on-site).
- Create podcasts to share motivating songs.
You can also share interviews with local fitness trainers on the songs that motivate them and their clients the most. - If all else fails, you can always try the piano stairs experiment.
Read more about how you can ramp up the fun with your wellness program here.