Most people spend eight hours per day, five days a week at their job — and many put in more hours than that. If your job is physically demanding and involves standing up, bending down, or carrying heavy loads for most of that time, it’ll be no surprise when your body starts to suffer aches and pains.
Worryingly, a 2018 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that people with very physically active jobs were at an 18% higher risk of early death than those with less active jobs.
Don’t panic — there are ways to combat this. Whether you’ve just passed your Texas contractor license exam or have been a warehouse operative for 30 years, you can still live a long and happy life if you prioritize your wellbeing! Below are our top-recommended ways to ensure you stay healthy and keep your mind and body in balance.
Exercise
It seems counter-intuitive to balance an active job with more exercise, but hear us out. Your physical job might be over-working some parts of your body and neglecting others, which doesn’t bode well for your body’s delicate equilibrium.
If you clock up thousands of steps per day at work, try some calming yoga or an energetic dance exercise when you get home. This will get your blood pumping through your whole body and stretch unused muscles. Similarly with those who work on building sites and likely have sore backs and arms — stretches or yoga help to ease muscle strain and pains. Swimming is also a great full-body workout that takes the weight off your sore joints.
Get Your Rest
Do you leave your workplace and immediately start running around after children, going grocery shopping, and attending to the ever-growing list of chores around the house? It might be time for an overhaul.
If your kids are old enough, or you have other people around the house, write a chore schedule to get them to help you out. After a long shift as a nurse on your feet for twelve hours, for example, you shouldn’t have to wash up everyone’s dishes.
Start a strict sleep schedule, too. Being sleep-deprived is bad for your health and can lead to accidents at work, becoming forgetful, and even increases your chances of getting heart disease. Put your tech away for at least an hour before bed and start sleeping earlier to feel the difference.
If you’re employed, you should also make sure you take all of your allotted vacation allowance from work to prevent burnout. Self-employed people, famously bad for taking time off, should make time for it, too.
Eat Well
It is convenient and tempting to grab a muffin at lunch and a takeout pizza when you get home from a stressful day, but junk food will only exacerbate the stress on your body and the low mood it causes. If you don’t have time throughout the day to make healthy food, consider using meal-kit companies like HelloFresh, taking hours out of preparing good meals.
To help resist takeout temptation, prepare your lunches and even breakfast the night before and keep healthy snacks in your bag or car.
Make Healthy Lifestyle Choices
Quitting smoking, cutting down on drinking, and cultivating healthy habits like going for a run instead of watching an hour’s TV will make every difference. You’ll soon notice you can handle your day-to-day work tasks more easily and have more energy to spend outside of work.
Bottom Line
Millions of people across the globe work physically-taxing jobs, but this doesn’t mean you’ll be unhealthy in later life.
Start improving your lifestyle for the better now to reap the benefits in a few months’ time and as you age.
