Exercise to achieve a better work-life balance

Want a better work-life balance? Exercise!
Researchers have found that exercise plays a role in how individuals feel they can manage their work-life balance.
"Individuals who exercised regularly were more confident they could handle the interaction of their work and home life and were less likely to be stressed at work," said Russell Clayton, assistant professor of management at Saint Leo University, US, and lead author of the study.
Researchers examined responses of 476 working adults to survey questions. Respondents were asked on a four-point scale (1 never - 4 always) questions about exercise behaviour.
Conflict between work and home can be categorised in two ways. Work interference with family describes typical job-based pressures that can lead to interference (either time or psychologically) of family time, researchers said.

Family interference with work is when personal issues find a way into the workday and compete with "work time." Researchers wanted to find if exercise helped both.

Previous studies have shown that exercise helps to reduce stress. A previous study examined exercise programmes of Tai Chi, Chinese martial arts with gentle movements, over 12 weeks. Another study looked at high-intensity aerobic exercise. Both showed reductions of self-reported stress.
What researchers didn't know is if the reduction of stress actually helped empower individuals to feel they had better work-life balance.
"The idea sounds counterintuitive. How is it that adding something else to our work day helps to alleviate stress and empower us to deal with work-family issues?" researchers said.

"We think exercise is a way to psychologically detach from work - you're not there physically and you're not thinking about it either - and, furthermore, it can help us feel good about ourselves," they said.
The study will be published in the journal Human Resource Management.