With so many offices going back to full time, in-person work, the old traditions of water cooler talks and bugging your friends at their cubicles can return in full force. Management may not want these time-wasters to return, but what if I told you that these classic office breaks can reduce your spine pain and improve office productivity?
We’ve all experienced the aches and pains that occur from sitting too long at the desk or on a long drive. The hip flexors tighten up, the upper back feels stiff, the neck gets achey. This can be linked to a postural issue but generally, it is due to our lack of movement. Studies have shown that when people are allowed to take small breaks from their work schedules, there is a reduction in their subjective level of discomfort and fatigue as well as increasing mental focus and productivity (1,2).
In the late 2010s, some articles have been written studying the effect on surgeons who take regulated microbreaks during surgery (1). They wanted to see if a short physical and mental break from surgery was correlated to reductions in pain and injury. The breaks were only 68 seconds long where they followed along to stretches to help correct posture, relax muscles, and reduce tension from a Youtube video. Surgeons were not however allowed to walk around as it would break their sterile field around the patient. All of the surgeons showed great improvements in reported physical pain, fatigue and mental/physical performance while having minimal disruption to surgery (1).
Just in case you’re not a surgeon, one systematic review looked at office workers taking 2-3 minute breaks every 30 minutes and its effects on physical discomfort/functions and mental fatigue (2). The review found that exercise in all forms has a positive correlation for reducing stress, even if it’s light activity. Workers were also found to have less fatigue if they took active breaks throughout the workday to get up and move.
So whether you’re a surgeon or an office worker, studies recommend grabbing another coffee, stretching your shoulders, and getting out of your chair for some movement!
Work well, move well.
Dr. Cole Maranger DC
References:
Abdelall, E. et al. 2018. Mini Breaks, Many Benefits: Development and Pilot Testing of an Intraoperative Microbreak Stretch Web-Application for Surgeons. Sage Journals. Retrieved from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1541931218621240?journalCode=proe
Radwin, A. et al. 2022. Effects of active microbreaks on the physical and mental well-being of office workers: A systematic review. Cogent Engineering. Retrieved from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311916.2022.2026206
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