Business Invests in Employee Fitness

Abstract

In 1894, John H. Patterson of the National Cash Register Company in Dayton, Ohio, introduced morning and afternoon exercise breaks for his employees. Ten years later he installed a gym on the fourth floor, and in 1911, he opened a 325-acre park for his employees. Every fall Americans watch the results of another company fitness program: the Green Bay Packers, originally an employee team sponsored by the Indian Packing Company in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

But it wasn't until about ten years ago that industry fitness programs really began to grow – in number and variety. They range from sessions led by interested employees to carefully controlled projects under full-time fitness directors. The facilities might be a local park or an elaborately equipped company gym. But reporters for The Physician and Sportsmedicine found that the programs had one theory in common: Increased fitness means increased production.