Exercise cards for taking active breaks during prolonged sitting : research data underlying the article

Može, Lara (author), Stanković Elesini, Urška (author), Luštek Preskar, Barbara (author), Jedrejčić, Anna (author), Medved, Tanja (author)

The consequences of prolonged sitting are faced both by employers and by employees themselves. This paper presents the findings from statistical reports and scientific studies on the negative effects of prolonged sitting on employees’ health and consequently, on the importance of introducing short active breaks. A survey conducted among the employees of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering of the University of Ljubljana revealed that as many as 88.3% of respondents perform their work in a seated position for an average of 2.9 hours per day. Although more than half (55.9%) of the respondents are physically active, they still most frequently experience discomfort caused by sitting, e.g. pain in the back, neck, wrists etc. While no structured group implementation of active breaks is organised at the faculty, employees still have the option to take such breaks independently, which, according to the survey results, suits them well. The majority of respondents (76.0%) prefer performing exercises whenever they feel the need for a break. Even though half of the respondents (50%) are aware that the discomfort (pain) caused by prolonged sitting could be alleviated by taking active breaks, they rarely do so. Those who do take active breaks individually (20% every half hour, 10% every two to three hours) generally perform the exercises freely, without guidance. To ensure that employees perform appropriate exercises during active breaks – especially those that prevent the negative consequences of prolonged sitting – we developed exercise cards as part of the study. Most respondents rated the cards as visually appealing (design, colour palette, typographic choices etc.) and useful. One third of the respondents stated that they would certainly use the exercise cards to take short active breaks during extended periods of sitting at work, while slightly more than one third were undecided. The majority of the respondents (64.5%) also believe that frequent active breaks supported by the exercise cards during long periods of sitting at work would indeed contribute to increasing their physical activity. The exercise cards were distributed to employees at the beginning of the academic year, together with information on the consequences of prolonged sitting; however, this will certainly not be sufficient. To develop a culture of regular active breaks, further awareness-raising among employees will be required, with the exercise cards representing a promising starting point.

• Language: English
• Keywords: prolonged sitting, sedentary behaviour, active breaks, exercise cards
• Typology: 2.20 - Complete scientific database of research data
• Geographic coverage: The research results include respondents from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering at the University of Ljubljana./ Rezultati raziskave pokrivajo respondente iz Naravoslovnotehniške fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani.
• Time coverage: The research refers to the 2024/2025 academic year. / Raziskava se nanaša na študijsko leto 2024/2025.
• Organization: NTF - Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering
• Year: 2025
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-176689
• Data col. methods: Self-completed questionnaire
• Publication date in RUL: 09.12.2025

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Vadbene karte za izvajanje aktivnih odmorov med dolgotrajnim sedenjem : raziskovalni podatki, obravnavani v članku

Abstract

S posledicami dolgotrajnega sedenja se soočajo tako delodajalci kot tudi delavci sami. V članku so podane ugotovitve iz statističnih poročil in znanstvenih raziskav o negativnih vplivih dolgotrajnega sedenja na zdravje delavcev ter posledično pomen vpeljevanja kratkih aktivnih odmorov. Iz ankete, izvedene med zaposlenimi Naravoslovnotehniške fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani, je bilo ugotovljeno, da kar 88,3 % anketiranih svoje delo opravlja v sedečem položaju v povprečju 2,9 ure/dan. Kljub temu da je več kot polovica (55,9 %) anketiranih telesno aktivna, pa zaradi sedenja najpogosteje občutijo bolečine v hrbtu, vratu, zapestjih itd. Skupno izvajanje aktivnih odmorov na fakulteti ni organizirano, imajo pa zaposleni možnost samostojnega izvajanja le-teh, kar jim glede na rezultate ankete tudi ustreza. Večina anketiranih (76,0 %) namreč želi izvajati vaje takrat, ko potrebujejo odmor. Čeravno se polovica anketiranih (50 %) zaveda, da bi omenjeno nelagodje (bolečine) zaradi dolgotrajnega sedenja lahko odpravili z izvajanjem aktivnih odmorov, pa to storijo le redko. Tisti, ki aktivne odmore izvajajo individualno (20 % na vsake pol ure, 10 % na vsake 2–3 ure), pa vaje izvajajo večinoma prosto, brez navodil. Da bi tekom aktivnih odmorov zaposleni izvajali ustrezne vaje, torej tiste, ki preprečujejo negativne posledice dolgotrajnega sedenja, smo v raziskavi razvili vadbene karte za aktivni odmor. Večina respondentov je karte ocenila kot vizualno privlačne (izgled, barvna paleta, izbira tipografije itd.) in uporabne. Tretjina respondentov je zatrdila, da bo vadbene karte zagotovo uporabljala za izvedbo kratkih aktivnih odmorov pri daljšem sedenju med delom, nekaj več kot tretjina pa je bila glede uporabe neopredeljena. Večina respondentov (64,5 %) tudi verjame, da bi pogosta izvedba aktivnih odmorov s pomočjo vadbenih kart pri daljšem sedenju med delom dejansko prispevala k povečanju njihove telesne aktivnosti. Vadbene karte so bile v začetku študijskega leta razdeljene zaposlenim skupaj z informacijo o posledicah dolgotrajnega sedenja, vendar pa to zagotovo še ne bo dovolj. Za uvedbo kulture rednih aktivnih odmorov bo potrebno nadaljnje osveščanje zaposlenih, pri čemer so vadbene karte vsekakor dober začetek.

• Keywords: dolgotrajno sedenje, sedentarno vedenje, aktivni odmor, vadbene karte

Projects

• Funder: MVZI - Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation / Ministrstvo za visoko šolstvo, znanost in inovacije
• Funding programme: Recovery and Resilience Plan / Načrt za okrevanje in odpornost
• Name: ULTRA – University of Ljubljana for a Sustainable Society / ULTRA - Univerza v Ljubljani za trajnostno družbo
• Acronym: ULTRA

• Funder: EU - European Union / Evropska unija
• Funding programme: Recovery and Resilience Plans / Načrt za okrevanje in odpornost
• Name: ULTRA – University of Ljubljana for a Sustainable Society / ULTRA - Univerza v Ljubljani za trajnostno družbo
• Acronym: ULTRA