Keeping it Casual for a Healthier Workplace
Casual Fridays may feel like a great way to prepare for the weekend, but dressing casually everyday could help you keep fit.
We recently came across a study by Zahour and Porcari from of University of Wisconsin that showed pedometer carrying participants took an average of 491 (or 8%) more steps on Jeans Day than on those days in which they wore normal business attire.
It is also estimated that participants in the study burned an average of 25 additional calories on Jeans Day with the extra steps walked. Wearing casual clothing every day for 50 weeks of work translates into burning an additional 125 calories per week and 6,250 calories per year.
“Over the last 25 years, advances in technology combined with our hectic lifestyles have helped to virtually eliminate physical activity from our daily routines,” says Cedric X. Bryant, Ph.D., chief exercise physiologist for ACE. “Wearing casual, comfortable clothes to work may be an easy way to encourage us to put physical activity back into our daily lives.”
If it's not an option to encourage your work place to relax the dress code, keep a comfortable pair of shoes at work so you can get around more easily on your lunch break.
It’s the small changes that we make to our routines that can really add up to making a big impact on the quality of life.