The emergence of COVID-19 had a significant impact on the working environment of office employees. Companies were forced to shift their work to social networks and allow work from home offices. During the quarantine and remote work periods, the amount of sitting time per day increased significantly. Prolonged sitting leads to various health problems and in particularly contributes to the development of chronic non-communicable diseases. To address the negative effects of prolonged sitting, we decided to conduct a study to investigate the effects of online exercise on office employees and to determine whether online workouts could help mitigate the negative effects of prolonged sitting.
The goal of the master's thesis was to investigate how a 12-week, fifteen-minute online workout would affect on the physical abilities, musculoskeletal issues, and well-being of office employees.
The study involved 24 office employees, comprising 19 womens and 5 men. The online exercise sessions were held every workday, starting at 1:30 PM through the online portal MS Teams. The active breaks consisted of eight exercises, focusing on strength, flexibility, and balance. Before the start of active breaks and after 12 week of performing active breaks, participants underwent body composition measurements, questionnaires, and tests of their physical abilities.
Results showed that the 12-week, fifteen-minute online workout, integrated into the work schedule positively impacted the physical abilities of employees, alleviated musculoskeletal pains, improved body composition, and increased the overall well-being of office employees. The hypotheses were successfully confirmed, leading us to suggest that companies should incorporate physical activities for their employees into their working scheludes, as it will have a positive impact on both employee health and their contribution to the company.
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