Sometimes it can feel like your career ambitions and personal health and fitness goals are competing with each other. But it doesn’t have to be this way. If you rethink how you network, you can combine exercise with professional networking and multitask two healthy habits at once. If you’re not convinced, here are reasons why joining a gym, a group fitness class or other active outing can help both your body and your work outlook. Welcome to sweatworking. 

 

Break a sweat, break the ice

Making small talk and awkward introductions is what most people like least about networking mixers. But if you’re exercising, you skip the artifice and immediately get down to what’s real. When everyone is covered in sweat, you don’t have to try too hard to act professional. Exercise is a great equalizer.

 

Build longer term relationships 

In the typical networking mixer, encounters last from a few seconds to several minutes. There may be an exchange of titles, business cards, and contact info, but these meetings rarely go beyond surface level. But if you join a spin class or regularly attend pilates, you begin to get to know those around you over time. Instead of fleeting relationships, you slowly but surely get to know others better when you share the same space with them over and over again. 

 

Bond over shared interests

What bonds us to others in networking isn’t always about the duties and responsibilities we have at work. It’s also about what we care about and our shared interest. When you share exercise with others, you’re building up a bond over your shared interest in running, cycling or other activity. 

 

Grow your weak ties 

At this point you might be wondering how exercising with others translates to career networking. The key is in building up “weak ties,” or those people in your network you know beyond your immediate friends and colleagues. Because they are outside your traditional network, these weak ties are more likely to know about career opportunities that you wouldn’t learn from those inside your immediate group. These weak ties could come from a church, parents at your kids preschool, or, of course, your gym. So if you’re thinking of blowing off your Saturday morning spin class, remember what a sweat session could do not just for your body -- but for your career. 

 

More Professional Networking Ideas: 

Rethinking How You Network

Tips For Networking Over Lunch

5 Networking Practices to Avoid