Implementing microexercise during working hours could potentially prevent 13% of all long-term sickness absences.
Microexercise consists of performing simple and short movement sessions at your desk, ideally with resistance bands, that reduce absences resulting from musculoskeletal injuries.
Annual Reviews is “a nonprofit publisher dedicated to synthesizing and integrating knowledge for the progress of science and the benefit of society.” In their 2023 Annual Review of Public Health, they cover the topic of Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention at the Workplace
They chose to cover the topic of promoting healthy habits in the workplace because workers spend a substantial part of their waking hours at work, the potential to influence the health of employees is substantial.
The review focuses on five key areas that are the most impactful ways to carry out health promotion and chronic disease prevention at the workplace are countless, including:
As a company that is on a mission to get people to move more at work, we will focus on number four—physical activity.
We are thrilled more attention is given to the concept of microexericse—where small increments of movement throughout the day (10–20 min three times a week) will add up to improved musculoskeletal health over time.
Microexercise should be brief and simple—ideally performed at your desk to eliminate the need for commuting, changing clothes, showering, or other time-consuming activities associated with exercise in a fitness center.
The key to microexercise is to keep it simple; to be able to perform tasks while sitting or standing at a desk.
The most effective and low-cost training for microexercises is with a resistance band.
Bands are not just a stretching tool.
Bands allow us to create resistance and load adding that strength component needed to gain long-term benefits.
As bands stretch more, there is more resistance, so at the end ranges (max stretch) this gives us the hardest experience.
When our body starts to fatigue, we usually experience this at that end range, which is a sign we are ready to take a break.
Stretch Affect developed a workplace microexercise program that is perfectly designed to alleviate and prevent musculoskeletal issues for the deskbound office worker.
The program consists of 41 online videos expertly narrated by Stretch Affect co-founder, Kyle Valery, that explain and demonstrate proper movement as well as the value of each exercise.
We created this course with the goal of retirement in mind.
In retirement we want the freedom to do what we love and if we are in pain or have injuries from poor posture, these are going to limit our ability to enjoy these things.
Because so much of our day is spent at the workplace, often at a desk, the likelihood of experiencing musculoskeletal pain is fairly high.
The goal of this course is to get in front of this and prevent this through performing microexercises throughout the day. Because repetition and consistency over time is our best recipe to success.
Our program addresses three core areas:
Breath and posture: optimal desk setup/posture and improve diaphragmatic (belly) breathing.
Joint mobility training (upper and lower body): improve range of motion and alleviate pain associated with joint restriction.
Activation training (upper and lower body): build strength and endurance for the muscles most utilized while sitting at a desk.
The biggest case example of microexercise followed 70,000 people for two years in Denmark and showed that implementing microexercise during working hours could potentially prevent 13% of all long-term sickness absences.
The Work Environment and Health in Denmark Study (2012-2018) showed that micro-exercise performed at the workplace exhibits the potential to increase muscle strength, reduce musculoskeletal pain, prevent deterioration of work ability and improve psychosocial work factors.
As the general working population spend a large part of their life at work, the workplace represents an ideal arena for health promotion, where workers who are unable to find the time and motivation to do regular physical exercise during leisure time can perform micro-exercise at the workplace instead.
From a managerial perspective, microexercise programs will reduce absenteeism and promote a happier, healthier workforce—improving the bottom line.
Leadership buy in
The successful implementation of any workplace exercise program typically includes the support of leadership.
The social pressure to take time away from work to participate in activities that may be viewed as personal time are barriers to acceptance.
However, if a company’s culture is one that encourages taking breaks for movement employees who may not normally exercise can find support and motivation in each other adding a positive social component.
A 2019 review concluded that positive facilitators for microexercise implementation included:
Because a substantial amount of our waking hours is spent at the workplace, there is an enormous opportunity for employers to positively influence employee health by supporting physical activity.
Microexercises are a great way to gain strength and endurance that will benefit your body well into retirement.
They are a simple, but impactful way to break the detrimental effects of sitting and poor posture allowing you to gain a healthy body and remain a productive employee.
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