Mind-set power

Prof. Langer looked over the government standards for adequate exercise.  They stated that adults need 30 minutes of good exercise most, if not all, days of the week.  They also stated that Blacks and Hispanics generally needed more exercise than Whites.  Since she knew that many minority job-holders work hard physically at their jobs and since there seemed to be no mention of or consideration of exercise done as part of one's job, she started to wonder.   She and some of her students found 7 hotels that would allow them to talk with and do some research with their staffs.  Langer was especially interested in the room cleaning staff.  She knew they normally cleaned 15 rooms a day and that such work was rather active.  

The investigators quizzed the workers about their health and practices.  Nearly all reported that they didn't exercise, just as Langer suspected they would.  They tended to have a mind set that equated good exercise with visiting a gym or doing other explicitly 'exercise' activities outside of work.  The staff was informed that the investigators were interested in their health and ways to improve it.  They allowed their vital signs to be measured: weight, blood pressure, etc.

Half of the participants in the study were told during a traning session that the work they did daily met the standards for exercise  and that the cleaners had been engaging in sufficient exercise as part of their daily work to obtain strong health benefits.  Evidence was gathered that showed none of the workers added to their outside-of-work exercise routines.  Prof. Langer reports:

After only four weeks of knowing that their work is good exercise, the participants in the informed group lost an average of two pounds. In addition to the weight loss, the room attendants also showed a significant reduction in body fat percentage. Further, the fact that the participants in the informed condition showed an increase in body water percentage indicates, first, that they did not simply lose water weight and, second, that they may have gained some muscle mass (muscle mass has a higher water content than fatty tissue), making the 2.7 percent loss even more significant (since muscle weighs more than fat). Finally, the fact that these were significant differences between the informed group and the control group, who were actually gaining weight and body fat, makes these findings even more powerful. With respect to blood pressure, the informed group showed a drop of 10 points systolic and 5 points diastolic in their blood pressure—a significant change. While there may be numerous reasons why the women in the study may have been unhealthy, including genetics and diet, our study focused on exercise. These women did not initially view their work as exercise. At the onset of the experiment, two-thirds of the participants reported not exercising regularly, and around one-third reported not getting any exercise at all.

All from a change in mind set!