The Bonus Payout from Manual Labor

Wade Yoder
3 min readJan 19, 2025

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Physical activity at work (at your paying job) is something I’ve thought a lot about over the past years, and I see the value even more as the warnings continue to come out about sedentary lifestyles, setting still for extended periods, and last but not least, mental stress when not combined with its healthy counterpart which is physical stress. Yes, that’s correct… mental stress without physical stress to counter it becomes toxic in the erosive effects it has on the body.

Inactivity is linked to most chronic disease, (heart disease, cancer, diabetes) and oft times, resulting in obesity and decreased muscle tone and physical capabilities. If we can counter chronic disease by getting more active, doesn’t this include physical work at our job as well?

Whenever I hear of a company that pays their employees for their gym time, I automatically think “smart company” and I can tell it makes the employee feel really good that their company cares about their health and fitness! A company allowing an employee to go to the gym while on the clock, to exercise, improve health, fitness, shape while getting paid, sounds pretty good to most people that care about their health!

However, if we have a physically exhausting job, carpentry, plumbing, fabrication, waitressing, janitorial and other manual labor jobs, we oft times tend to look at it different than when we exercise in a gym or have paid exercise time from our employer. It’s not so different, especially if you can work fast enough to get your heart rate up for an extended period and can go through a variety of movements, such as lifting, pulling, pushing, squatting, and walking.

With all the environmental toxins, food additives, stress, and then if combined with a sedentary lifestyle or job, we increase our chances of a buildup of pending side effects that can really position us at the losing end of the stick, (in future healthcare costs, down time, premature aging and chronic disease).

It makes perfect sense that our intake of fast food, processed food, as well as loads of sugar, when combined with lifestyles that are inactive are exactly what is setting this perfect storm for a massive era of death by chronic disease. We can change this by following 3 words, changing lifestyle habits.

There are many health benefits in a job that requires physical output, and this physical activity can have great immediate and long-term benefit.

Here are a few: increased muscle mass and tone, increased cardio endurance, better cardiopulmonary circulation, increased bone density, better detoxification and regular bowel movements, physical fatigue from activity or exercise relieves mental stress, lower body fat and last but not least, you get a workout while making money!

How to get a workout on the job: when you see a stretch of work that might last 20 minutes or longer, increase the speed that you do it to get your heart rate up, (this helps burn body fat and build cardio endurance). If you want to build muscle density, increase the load or speed of movement.

If you have a desk job: stand up and move around whenever you get a chance. You can do some rapid squat thrusts, jumping jacks, or pushups whenever you take a restroom break, (if you take 5–10 breaks, this will add up). If you do an exercise that activates most of your muscles, you can do a lot in one minute of rapid, intense exercise.

When we look at the health benefits of a body that keeps in motion and realize that health will be tomorrow’s currency, our appreciation can grow for a job (or daily activities) that keep us on the move and can make us feel like we’re accomplishing two things at one time! After all, it’s pretty neat if you can work and make a paycheck from your employer while getting exercise at the same time!

Sorta reminds me of a quote from Yogi Berra: “They give you cash which is as good as money”

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Wade Yoder
Wade Yoder

Written by Wade Yoder

Master Trainer, Specialist in: Fitness Nutrition, Exercise Therapy, Strength and Conditioning, Senior Fitness, Youth Fitness Trainer

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