Photo: Wasana Kunpol / Canva

Did you know that the latest Eurobarometer shows that white collar (office) workers are more than three times as likely as manual workers to sit down for up to 8,5 hours every day?

Physical activity at work has many benefits. It can reduce shoulder and neck pain, improve teamwork, reduce sick leave and boost physical health, mental health and wellbeing. 

Therefore, ISCA has developed a Brain Break Toolkit to enable physical activity at work, both for office and manual workers.

Calm the mind
Brain breaks are important to allow the mind to rest or focus on something else than the computer screen or exhausting routines. We suggest the following six breaks for different parts of the body:

• Breathing: A classical breathing exercise can help you to focus and calm down.
• Eyes: Want to reduce eye strain? Try Flexing, Blinking, Focusing, Palming, Zooming, Figure-Eight(ing) and Resting!
• Ears: Attention Training Technique exercises reduce anxiety and depression symptoms by taking the attention away from distressing thoughts.
• Hands: Air drawing triangles with one hand and rectangles with the other both rest the minds and gives a good laugh!
• Arms & Legs: If your body feels a bit rigid, try stretching down to touch your knee with your opposite elbow and repeat on the other side.
• Full-body: Stand, stretch and jump to exercise and refresh your body and mind. 

See you later, Elevator
Another easy way to become more physically active is to walk, bike or climb to work. And by climbing, we mean #UseTheStairs. Say see you later to the elevator and take part in #NoElevatorsDay on the 30th of April 2025.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook and check out other #NowWeMove initiatives www.isca.org/nowwemove.