In today's fast-paced lives that we lead with immense work pressure, feeling burntout at your job has become a normal occurrence. However, a recent study suggests that exercise can help. Not just any workout, though – it should not be too much or too little.

Exercise might help when dealing with burnout

A study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine investigated employees’ physical activity (PA) levels of more than 500 employees. They examined their work life and exercise habits and whether they affected their emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. Researchers discovered that it did. Those who engaged in moderate physical activity showed an effective reduction in their burnout and emotional exhaustion and promoted personal accomplishment.

What are moderate exercises?

Michele Wolf Marenus, study author, PhD and a research scientist at Personify Health, defines “moderate physical activity” as “Three or more days of at least 20 minutes of vigorous physical activity, such as running. Five or more days of a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate physical activity like strength training, dancing, or hiking. Five or more days doing a combination of the two.”

Marenus added that an “ideal weekly routine would be three to five days of very challenging exercise”. Other ways are “taking the stairs or parking the car further away from the building to encourage more steps.”

What did the research find?

Exercising might help with burnout, but the research found it depended on the type of physical activity people pursued - high-intensity activity didn’t reduce burnout more than lower levels of exercise. The conclusions were drawn by asking the research subjects to fill out surveys about their job-related stresses and physical activity habits.

Around 53 per cent of participants indulged in moderate physical activity, with the remaining participants split about evenly among the other two groups - low and high physical activities. The study discovered that the participants who reported doing moderate levels of exercise were the least emotionally exhausted and felt the most personally accomplished.

According to study author Michele Wolf Marenus, PhD, a research scientist at Personify Health, exercise reduces job burnout because it involves spending time away from work. It gives employees “the opportunity to recover from work-related issues” and “replenish cardiovascular health, mood, emotional regulation, and memory”.

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