Why is it important to take exercise breaks during your workday?
Long working hours, constant postures, overexertion in trying to be increasingly efficient, the challenge of accomplishing all goals and not letting others down, or the repetitive movement of a given task, can lead people to suffer from workplace stress, causing various negative effects and putting the occupational health of many workers at risk.
A high workload, in the medium- or long-term, may cause a person to suffer from physical or emotional stress, altering his/her concentration, learning capabilities, efficacy and efficiency, ultimately affecting his/her quality of life. Concerningly, this can result in high personal, social, and economic costs for workers and their organizations.
Exercise breaks are considered to be one of the best tools to improve the workplace environment, because they can help prevent occupational illnesses and aid in the prevention of stress, which is the cause for so many negative effects.
Exercise breaks are individual or group activities, which last between 10 and 15 minutes, during which joint mobility, activation, and muscle flexibility exercises are performed, along with other functional and work of breathing exercises. Their purpose is to disconnect the worker from the strenuous labour routine, in order for him/her to subsequently resume any given activity with renewed and additional energy, after releasing tensions.
The benefits derived from incorporating these exercise breaks in your daily routine are numerous, among them: improvement of your mood, favouring of posture changes, reduction of the effects of sedentariness, changes to your workplace routine, relaxing of tense muscles, and activation of the least used muscles, because the breaks stimulate blood circulation and venous return, reducing stress and labour absenteeism. This could ultimately lead to improvements in performance and in the workplace environment.
Aictive has created Work Break, a platform that allows users to take their exercise breaks guided by a virtual instructor.
Work Break uses Artificial Intelligence to review and evaluate each user’s exercises, in order to provide them with feedback about their performance, rating them with a score, in order to incentivize their day-to-day improvement.
Exercises can be performed from anywhere and at any time of the day, at each worker’s best convenience.
Work Break is a great ally of all companies which are concerned for the health and wellness of their employees!
If you want more information about exercise breaks or specifically about Work Break, please leave your comments below.
