7 Tips to Help Your Team Become Physically and Mentally Fit

Are you a manager at a company with a team of employees? Maybe you’re the head of an organization who is in charge of guiding a team of people to accomplish various goals. No matter what type of group you lead, there are several ways you can help your team to become more physically and mentally fit. Discover seven examples that are easy to put into practice with your team.

1. Provide Convenient Access to an Exercise Area. Exercise is an excellent way to lower stress and can prevent depression. So, if you’re the manager of a company or you head up an organization, make it a point to provide your team members with an exercise area. This could be as simple as setting up a few stationary bikes and a treadmill in a room at your company. Or, find out about any deals at the local recreation center or YMCA so your team members can have access to a pool, exercise classes and more at reduced prices. In short, make it easy for your team members to get in twenty or thirty minutes of exercise a few times a week to boost their physical fitness. You could even offer an incentive or a reward of some kind for people who are using the exercise facilities.

2. Provide Options for Counseling. Make Regional & Rural mental health services a part of the health plan of your company or organization. So, your team members can receive counseling for depression, addiction or family difficulties without having to find resources themselves. You will have them available if they’re needed. Today, many people are facing daily stresses in their work, family and in other aspects of their lives. This makes mental health services essential to make people’s lives more manageable. Just knowing they have the option of receiving mental health services can give your team members and their families peace of mind.

3. Schedule a Fun and Games Day for the Team . Sometimes just getting together for some challenging and fun games can be of great value to people working for a company or organization. A three-legged race is an opportunity for physical activity and allows team members the chance to laugh together. Silly games can help release stress and put things into perspective for your team. Fortunately, there a many games and activities for teams of all sizes. Encourage your team members to bring their families to game day so you can have a full day of exciting activities with everyone included.

4. Provide Healthful Food Options for Team Members. Another way to promote physical fitness at your company or organization is to serve healthful foods to team members. You may want to add some vegetarian dishes to the menu at your company’s cafeteria or provide foods in the break room that are more healthful than the usual fare. Mixing just a few healthful foods into a person’s day can make a lot of difference in how they feel and prompt them to look for other ways to eat healthy.

5. Set Up the Work Environment to Encourage Walking. Sometimes providing incidental opportunities for exercise can help team members become more physically and mentally fit. One example is making a walking trail around a company located in a rural area. A well-lit, simple gravel trail that measures about two miles can be walked by team members over their lunch hour if they like. Walking a trail at lunch can be a way to refresh for the work that needs to be done in the afternoon. Or, if a company is located in a more urban area, a manager can make the stairs more appealing than the elevator by improving the lighting around them and perhaps putting extra cushioning on each stair for a walker’s comfort. Taking the stairs, a couple times a day instead of an elevator may sound like a small change, but it can help a team member feel a bit more energized over time. After a while, the elevators may not get much use at all!

6. Monitor the Work Schedules of Your Team Members. Monitoring the work schedules of your team members can help you ensure they are not overdoing it. It’s easy in today’s world to get too busy with work and skip time with family and friends. But, time with family and friends is necessary for an individual to feel at ease and fulfilled. Not surprisingly, working too many overtime hours can drain a person both physically and mentally. So, limiting the number of overtime hours worked by your team members or spreading the overtime hours evenly throughout your entire team can help everyone achieve a balance between their work life and personal life. You will get better efforts from your team if they feel rested and ready to do the work at the beginning of each day.

7. Arrange for Team Members to Offer Input on Work Activities. Sometimes team members can have valuable insight on how a company or organization is run. They can offer ideas to make the organization operate more efficiently and get the best out of workers there. Team members who feel they have a say in what happens at the company or organization they work for are happier and more content. They feel they are appreciated and listened to by their bosses or organization’s leader.

Lastly, these are just seven tips on how to help your team members enjoy better physical and mental fitness. Remember that making physical activities easy and fun can encourage more activity. Plus, having convenient access to mental health services can be of value to many team members who need help with an issue or simply want to learn how to lead a more satisfying life. Taking some time to think about what can improve the lives of your team members can benefit everyone in the end.