Work out to work hard

When the clock hits 1 PM, the IT workers have to jump from their table for a 10 minutes of rigorous stretching and bending. At sharpt 1, the radio of the company starts instructing them “ichi, ni, san (one, two, three)”.

The well suited staff has to compulsorily take part in this regular exercise drill implemented by Adoc International.

Inspired from this company, a many number of Japanese companies are encouraging and implementing exercise breaks in a hope to keep their employees healthy and productive.

“Japan’s population is quickly getting older and there are fewer and fewer kids. This is very big risk for companies,”

said Kenichiro Asano, who works in Fujikura’s healthcare strategy group.

The method

Adoc INternational staffs practice “rajio taiso”, an exercise routine often learned in schools.

“We chose rajio taiso because it was the simplest exercise to put in place,” said Clifton Lay, who works in Adoc International’s human resources department.

Who else

Toyota has their own in-house workout space.

While Sony employees are supposed to join the exercise drill daily at 3:00 PM and it’s for all from small level workers to top level executives.

Rakuten had installed some 12,000 movable desks so that workers can switch between sitting and standing positions throughout the day.

Japan has the world’s fastest ageing populations. The government also wants to take up this exercise drill into their campus to keep the citizens healthy as the growing number of retirees with health issues is a serious concern in Japan.

So what do you think? Do companies in India need such exercising drill? Well, YES since we are not in a list of top 50 healthy countries of the world as surveyed by Bloomberg.

When it comes to living a long healthy life, Italy is the place to be.

Bloomberg initiated a research on health index by collecting information about 163 countries of the world and created a Bloomberg Global Health Index.

Each country in the index was graded based on variables such as life expectancy, causes of death and health risks ranging from high blood pressure and tobacco use to malnutrition and the availability of clean water. – Bloomberg

The infographic below shows the rank of countries from the healthiest to the least healthy.

Unfortunately, India is no where in top 50 countries in their list.