Active breaks are a widely recommended workday activity. They offer physical and psychological benefits to employees whose jobs include prolonged muscle tension.
A good coworking plan considers ergonomics, chairs that favour good posture, lighting that is easy on the eyes, and so on. In this article we explain the 5 main reasons to take active breaks.
What are active breaks?
Active breaks are breaks in the workday. As their name suggests, they are active, i.e. they include exercises to ease muscular and skeletal tension.
Active breaks are short interruptions of the workday to perform exercises that aid flexibility and concentration.
Daily office work, especially sitting in front of a computer, leads to muscle stiffness. This leads to a kind of chronic fatigue. Many employees have also adopted a sedentary lifestyle.
It is recommended that active breaks last from 7 to 10 minutes and take place twice a day. This helps improve flexibility and aids emotional and relational health.
Benefits of active breaks at work
Active breaks at work offer many benefits. They improve employees' well-being generally, but they also increase productivity. Here are 5 reasons you should make active breaks a part of your workday.
Reason # 1: Active breaks reduce work stress
Stress is one of the epidemics of the 21st century. Long workdays with many demands lead to a great deal of screen time, often with poor posture or head and eye strain.
One benefit of active breaks at work is to reduce tension. They help the body relax and reset.
Reason # 2: Active breaks boost self-esteem and aid concentration
Sustained attention causes fatigue. This slows thought, diminishes creativity, and increases irritability. Fatigue also tends to make us more critical of ourselves and others.
Active breaks help divert our attention to something else for a while, which improves concentration. They also broaden our thought and improve self-esteem.
Reason #3: Active breaks improve job performance
As you get tired during the workday, your task fulfillment suffers. The exercise prescribed in active breaks helps improve work performance.
Blood flow improves as well when you stretch the muscles of your upper and lower limbs, sand this helps you think more clearly and even finish tasks in less time.
Reason # 4: Interpersonal relationships and teamwork are encouraged
Teams usually take active breaks at the same time. Breaks thus become moments of relaxation that allow for conversation and networking with coworkers.
This helps foster better interpersonal relationships. It also offers a space to converse about necessary tasks for the work at hand. This contributes to teamwork.
Reason #5: Active breaks benefit employee health
The fifth, but certainly not the least important, reason for active breaks is the improvement of employee health. Doing the recommended exercise helps to avoid injuries, especially neck and back injuries.
Active breaks contribute to employees' physical, mental and relational health.
These exercises also promote circulation and flexibility. All this contributes to improving health. The practice of active breaks thus contibutes to everyone's well-being.
Technology for active breaks: apps and occupational health
Occupational health is very important in any business. However, daily demands often mean that active breaks are skipped. Technology thus offers options to help maintain this practice.
Tools that remind employees to take active breaks improve the company's health record. There are a number of these exercise reminders available.
Use technology to remind employees to take active breaks twice a day.
You can also incorporate tools to help direct the exercise. There are also tools to measure blood pressure; these can help in keeping records and contribute to employee health.
Conclusion
Active breaks contribute to employee health. Encouraging such breaks through technology is essential to maintain profitability and a quality workplace.
At Parso we are committed to technologies that make workplaces easier to manage. Visit our website and discover tools to simplify coworking management.
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