High Energy Spaces!

Many of us do all that we can to avoid working out.  We often use work as an excuse to avoid exercise—it seems many of us would rather spend time writing another report from the office than taking steps to make ourselves fit and healthy.  Some of us are even cleverer at coming up with excuses not to work out.  To uphold principles of ethical reporting, I have to let the more sophisticated of you exercise dodgers know that I am often very impressed with your efforts.

In the end, however, most of us do end up having to exercise.  Damn it.

What sort of space makes it more likely that we will burn off calories and build muscle?

High energy spaces are one of the sorts of spaces where scent can really make a difference.  No, I’m not talking about sweat and the value of washing workout clothes, although that is obviously a good idea.  Byan Raudenbush and a team of others from Wheeling University learned that the scent of peppermint enhances physical performance and reduces the perceived effort involved in physical activity, which can help people feel less tired.

Putting on some sort of peppermint body spray or lotion whose smell will be released as you sweat is a good idea as long as it won’t make you so slippery that the weights you’re trying to lift slip out of your hands or some other sort of calamity ensues because you are as slick as a wet seal.  Perhaps a peppermint air spray is a better idea.  However you do it, make sure that you smell peppermint as you work out.

Science has also determined that smelling the following scents energizes us:  grapefruit, tangerine, peppermint, and eucalyptus.

Sound is also important in workout spaces.  Our hearts start to beat in time to sounds or music that we hear (the process is called entrainment), which is why fast-beat music works so well for working out.  Your heart beating faster gives you the psychological push to work out harder.

The sorts of colours that are most energizing are also the sort that are likely to make a room seem small, so unless you have a very large room it’s probably best to use the energizing shade on one wall and face that wall as you work out.  The energizing colours you’ll want to use are saturated, concentrated colours that aren’t very bright—think sapphire blues, emerald greens and similar shades.  Looking at red gives us a burst of strength, over and over again, so it’s a great colour to look at as you lift weights.  Looking at red isn’t such a good idea if you’ll be doing a more sustained activity, such as riding an exercise bike or a skill-based motor task such as playing tennis.

Warm light makes us want to cuddle while cooler light makes us feel more energetic, so it’s the best option for an exercise space.  Also, brighter is better if you’re trying to encourage physical activity.

More rectilinear environments bring to mind function and action so they’re great spaces to exercise.  Any patterns used in an exercise area should feature more straight lines than curving ones.  Visually complex environments can work well for exercising, so put up those aspirational posters, the ones that show how you want to look after all the working out, or whatever else you can think of on the walls you’ll see as you exercise.

Temperatures at the cooler end of the comfortable range are best for exercising, too warm, above 70 degrees Fahrenheit or so, and we start to feel like a nap is a better idea than a run.

Design can encourage us to be more active, even to workout.  Design can help you transition from making excuses for avoiding working out to exercising with vigor and enthusiasm (at least some enthusiasm).

Additional Resources:

Michael Bloomberg (Mayor), David Burney (Commissioner, Department of Design and Construction), and others. 2010.   “Active Design Guidelines:  Promoting Physical Activity and Health in Design,” http://centerforactivedesign.org/dl/guidelines.pdf. This is a really useful resource.