The "business benefits" you can get from exercise are legion, which is

why your company provides a gym or a gym membership. But sending

you there is the worst thing your company can do to you.

Your company means to help. Your HR department and the big cheeses

in the C-suite want to do something good for you, but sending you to do the

corporate workout (The Workout) is not good for them, you, or your company.

The truth is that many successful Americans get physical activity, but

they don't get the right kind of physical activity. One in four Americans

does absolutely no exercise. Yet, "exercise is the single best thing" a

professional like you can do for mood and memory, according to Business

Insider. A lot of businesses are furnishing stand-up desks for you, which

is fine until you head off to the gym, sit down, and toss all the benefits out

the window.

Wait a minute! Shouldn't you get to the gym and break a sweat?

No! Never!

So how is success killing you?

Whether you work at some big, faceless, multinational corporation or

you've built up your own business, the perk of a gym in the building or

a membership somewhere offers only The Workout. The Workout takes

place in a room filled with free weights, weight machines, and TVs to

take your mind off the drudgery of whatever exercise you're performing.

There's also spinning, treadmills, benches, inclining sit-up boards, and

mirrors. Lots of mirrors. Got to have those mirrors to admire yourself.

The Workout takes an hour to complete, usually more, and that's Problem

#1. Be honest with yourself: do you really have this kind of time to spend

on a workout? With your schedule? With your deadlines? With all that's

expected of you? At work? At home?

While trudging your way through The Workout you move from station to

station, convinced that you're working all your important muscle groups.

Arms here, legs there--and don't forget the abs. It's always swimsuit

season somewhere.

But what have you really done? You've sat. That's right, you've been

sitting the whole time. You've sat to do curls with free weights, you've sat

to do leg presses, you've sat to do lat pulls, you've sat during spin class--

you've been on your butt during the entire workout!

Then, to top it off, you've been on your back and sat up 25 times

performing "crunches," as sit-ups are known to members of that secret

society that makes up Corporate Workout World.

You might be saying that The Workout is better than nothing. But no,

you're wrong. Only walking is better than nothing.

All that sitting, as you know by now, is killing you. And your workout is

making it worse.

Is it any wonder why your back is achy, your muscles are sore, and your

joints are creaky? You're supposed to be curing yourself of all the sitting

you do at work, and you wind up doing more sitting. The irony is too

thick.

Your body is getting old, and it's getting old quickly.