The pain of extreme workouts and tough challenges can help staff ‘cope with inactive work days’ and the office
Pain from extreme challenges can help office works cope with lifestyle
THE pain of extreme challenges can help office workers cope with their sedentary lifestyle, a study has revealed.
Researchers from Cardiff University, Kedge Business School, France, and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore spoke to people with occupations ranging from nurse to director who did the Tough Mudder adventure challenge.
Contestants run through mud, plunge into freezing water and scramble through electric wires.
Participants told researchers the event helped them escape the monotony of work and that pain helped them deal with the physical inactivity of office life.
Assistant Professor Julien Cayla, of Nanyang Business School, said: "For individuals who feel that modern office work has made their bodies redundant, obstacle racing and other forms of short but intense and painful activities provide a brief but acute reappearance of the body."
MOST READ IN LIVING
One participant said: “You kind of come away feeling like you’ve lived a little bit more. You take your mind and body to a new level of endurance.”
Professor Bernard Cova said: “Electric shocks and ice-cold water may be painful but they allow participants to escape from the demands and anxieties of modern life.”
"By leaving marks and wounds, painful experiences help us create the story of a fulfilled life spent exploring the limits of the body."
More than 2.5million people have taken the challenge worldwide.
Some have suffered spinal damage, strokes and heart attacks.
Researchers attended Tough Mudder events in the UK, Australia and the United States.