Let's talk about money, or does the movement pay off?

We all know the expression that time is money. Probably even more valuable, because money can't actually buy us time. However, it is possible to make money by investing time wisely. If we put our daily exercise habits into this context, it seems at first that exercise consumes time. At the same time, we could be working and earning money, or spending time with family. We know that in return we get a good feeling of well-being, positive emotions and health. Somehow it feels like a trade for goods, where on the one hand you give up your precious time and get benefits in return. In reality, however, you are losing money as well as time, because you are paying for a gym ticket. So where is the sensible balance point, so that the benefits gained do not outweigh the losses incurred?

Would you believe us if we told you that by investing time in training, you don't lose time, you gain time? What if we told you that by exercising regularly your income would actually increase? Don't think so? But it's true. So let's take this maths problem apart.

Gain 20 years by exercising

A well-trained heart beats 50 beats per minute at rest, an average trained heart 70. The difference is 1,200 beats an hour, 28,800 beats a day, more than 10.5 million beats a year. It has been calculated that the human heart makes a total of 2.6 billion beats over a lifetime (one such article can be found for example here). If we calculate these impacts over a number of years, the results are:

• 50 beats per minute - 98 years
• 70 beats per minute - 71 years

It is 27 years of pure victory. Let's take a couple of years off, because in the hour a day you dedicate to training, your heart beats on average 150 times a minute. That's about 2 times faster than a low-trained heart beating in that same hour. However, the gain is still 25 years.

Training also takes time. Let's say you need to train 7 times a week to get in shape so that your resting heart rate drops to 50. That's 364 hours a year, which over 98 years adds up to 4 years and 1 month you spend training. On the plus side, even that can do more than 20 years.

Enhance quality of life

It turns out that you don't waste time by exercising, you gain time.

What am I going to do with all these years I've lived as an old man, some will now ask sceptically. After all, it's not how long you live, but how you live. True, but these numbers also favour those who move more. Their quality of life is simply better.

Statistics Estonia knows that the average life expectancy in Estonia is 74 for men and 83 for women. In Estonia, men live 54 years in good health and women 58 years.

In Sweden, the average healthy life expectancy is 73 years, 19 years longer than in Estonia. Only when healthy can a person fully enjoy life. In Sweden, they might even be able to run around.

The standard of living in Sweden is higher than in Estonia. Maybe that's why people live longer? A better life certainly helps, but is it the only way? Where else in our lives is there a significant difference apart from the average wage? The right answer is in our level of physical activity. Let's look at a comparison of people's physical activity levels between Estonia, Finland and Sweden published by the Ministry of Culture.

In Sweden and Finland, the ratio of people with an active lifestyle is half that of us, according to this table.

The financial cost of exercising

You have to pay to go to the gym, for a start. But no doubt there is an opportunity cost. opportunity cost or let's say, foregone income. If you assume that you spend about 4% of your time in the gym, or about 30 hours per month, then calculating an average hourly wage of 10€, we can calculate that it costs you 300€ per month. That's a fair amount if someone were to give it to a party now.

In fact, there is another side to the coin. You've probably heard of studies that say that sporty workers and schoolchildren are more successful. However, better results lead to promotion to higher paying jobs. That's a gut feeling analysis, but there have been studies.

Daniel Hamermesh in his book "Beauty pays" has summarised research showing that people who others find more attractive are more successful in life. Calculations showed that their earnings were about 4% higher than people in similar jobs who were not considered as attractive. Discrimination? Probably. Unlike a woman, who it would seem silly and of course costly to cut to a man to avoid the gender pay gap, you have the opportunity to be on the winning side of this discrimination. The fact is that athletic looks are generally considered better than non-athletic ones.

If we now weigh up the slightly higher salary, the higher productivity at work (which also translates into your salary figure) and the cost in money of the time lost on the other side, then in the most conservative case the numbers end up equal. In fact, I'm quite convinced that you don't end up having to pay for your sporting hobby, it comes back to you in real money.

How to be even more effective?

Some final thoughts on how to make your sporting and healthy lifestyle even better for you.

Let your employer pay

You have a lot to gain from a healthy lifestyle, but so does your employer. A sporty and successful employee is every employer's dream. If for some reason your breadwinner has so far been reluctant to support sport, remind him or her that more than 1,200 companies in Estonia support a healthy lifestyle for their employees. Stebbys. If your company doesn't already do this, you can of course be a flagship of sorts, but whether or not being a flagship of backwardness is a badge of honour is a question in itself.

Train at home, save time and money

If the main motivator for working out in a sports club is not exercising with your friends , it's worth summing up the time you spend exercising. In addition to going to the gym, there is also time to go to the gym, right? If you find that an hour of your day is spent just going to and from the gym, perhaps there are more sensible solutions?

If you have 20 training days a month, that's 20 hours and 200€ (according to our hourly calculation from earlier). Plus, it's cheaper to train at home. For example FitQ home training for a hot pass is about 50€ cheaper than a monthly sports club package. When you add up these numbers, a monthly saving of €250 for training at home seems like a good deal. Would you take that money?

If training at home is not a real club for you, you could consider swapping a free monthly club ticket for a cheaper day package. It's quieter in the middle of the day at the club, and it certainly takes less time to get to and from the club than it does at peak times. So there are still savings to be made. If you can negotiate an extra hour for lunch from your boss to go to the gym, then your training life would be a real treat.

If you've got a super cool money and time saving tip we didn't write about, a good idea or would like to counter one of our ideas with an observation, feel free to share your ideas with us by writing to. blog@fitq.me