A Stressful Work Environment May Increase Depression
A Finnish study has shown that a stressful work environment brought on by a lack of team spirit increases worker depression and the odds that employees will use antidepressants.
Marjo Sinokki, from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Turku, Finland says “It is important to promoto well-being at work in every way and pay attention also to team climate.”
Sinokki’s research team collected data on 3,347 Finnish workers, aged 30 to 64 years old. They asked about team spirit and the quality of communication and also about how they felt about the demands of their jobs.
The participants were asked to rate their workplace according to four phrases:
- “encouraging and supportive of new ideas”
- “prejudiced and conservative”
- “nice and easy”
- “quarrelsome and disagreeing.”
They were also asked about their home and social lives.
The researchers found that of those who thought team spirit was poor, about 60% were more likely to report being depressed and 50% were more likely to take antidepressants than those who rated team spirit as high.
However, Dr. Carole Lieberman, a clinical professor of psychology and stress expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, has some issues with some aspects of the study.
She says, “Although I agree with their conclusion, that poor team climate or office stress is associated with depression, there are problems with this study. The study does not clarify to what degree office stress causes depression, versus to what degree depression causes office stress.”
Even given the criticism of this study, I would say that there is at least some merit to it. I have noticed that I am less happy when part of a negative work environment. I have also noticed that jobs with poor team spirit are more aggravating. This is something to think about if you are stressed out or depressed about your work. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer any solutions, but awareness and a positive attitude couldn’t hurt.
Reference: MedLine Plus
Sphere It415 views
High Intensity Interval Training
Lately I have been doing High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) for my cardio sessions. I have been doing this on the spinning bike and it’s been really intense.
I have been doing 45 seconds of high intensity followed by 90 seconds of recovery. I typically do this for about 20 minutes, but I plan to work up to about 30 minutes. For the higher intensity part, I increase the resistance and also peddle faster. I downloaded a stopwatch application for my phone (T-Mobiel G1), which has helped keep the timing right. Unfortunately, the application doesn’t do interval timing automatically, but I just stop, reset, and start at each intensity transition.
This type of cardio session is highly effective for burning calories and revving up the metabolism. It’s also much more fun than doing slow cardio for over an hour. I get bored with the long cardio sessions.
Sphere It1,863 views
Hooked On Podcasts
Lately I’ve been listening to a couple of fitness podcasts while I’m at work and sometimes while I’m at the gym doing cardio.
I really like TheFitCast and Strength Coach.
The Fitcast has some great hosts (Kevin Larrabee, Jonathan Fass, Tony Gentilcore, and Leigh Peele) and they frequently have interviews with some very notable people in the fitness industry. Most, if not all, of the hosts have written articles for T-Nation. I have listened to interviews from John Berardi, Tom Venuto, Dave Tate, Mike Boyle, Eric Cressey, Alwyn Cosgrove, and many others. The advice and information is top notch, and I find that it keeps me motivated to train hard and eat well.
The Strength Coach podcast is the official podcast for Mike Boyle and has some great information as well. Sometimes I find that it’s a little over my head or geared more towards those who train athletes; however, its still motivating and I almost always learn something new from each episode.
Check out these podcasts and hopefully they will be motivating to you as well. The links are embedded above, but you can also just search by name on iTunes and subscribe there.
Sphere It405 views
My Latest Workout
My Latest Workout
The follwing is my latest workout program. It consists of three separate workouts that I do once each per week – typically Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. This is more of a muscle building program. Last week was my first time through, and I have been really sore.
Day 1
Week 1: 3 sets of 15
Week 2: 4 sets of 10
Week 3: 3 sets of 12
Week 4: 4 sets of 6-8
A1) Dumbbell Flat Bench Press
A2) Cable Rows
B1) Incline Flies
B2) Bent-Over Lateral Raise, Thumbs Down
C1) Dumbbell Curls
C2) Dumbbell Skull Crushers
D1) Hammer Curls
D2) Dumbbell Tricep Kickbacks
D3) Standing Cable Crunches
Day 2
Week 1: 4 sets of 10
Week 2: 3 sets of 15
Week 3: 4 sets of 6-8
Week 4: 3 sets of 12
A1) Walking Lunges
A2) Dumbbell Shoulder Press
B1) Bulgarian Split Squats
B2) Arnold Press
C1) Single-Arm Shrugs
C2) Wrist Roller
C3) Hanging Leg Raises
Day 3
Week 1: 3 sets of 15
Week 2: 4 sets of 10
Week 3: 3 sets of 12
Week 4: 4 sets of 6-8
A1) Dumbbell Incline Bench Press
A2) Face Pulls
B1) Flat Flies
B2) Cable Shrugs
C1) Dumbbell Preacher Curls
C2) Cable Tricep Extensions with Straight Bar
C3) Ab Roller
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