The Wall Street Journal—September 15, 2014
More executives are mixing business with workouts.
"Breaking the ritual of sitting around a boardroom table helps open up thinking and create a more comfortable, trusting atmosphere," says Bob Berk, a chair at the San Diego-based business-networking group Vistage International, leading a peer advisory group for executives in Chicago.
Jordan Metzl, a sports-medicine physician at New York's Hospital for Special Surgery, says studies have shown that being in a group atmosphere increases a person's exertion levels by 15% to 20%. However, he cautions, "if you're talking the whole workout, it's not a workout."
The trick to getting in a workout and networking is to know when to squeeze in the small talk, Dr. Metzl says. Sometimes people are working hard running up a hill but then you jog back down easy and can have a little chat," he says.
This article originally appeared on wallstreetjournal.com.
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