Exercise at work - why it's so important and how to make it routine

Movement in the workplace is important! - We explain why and how you can do it

In this article, we show you why exercise in the workplace is not only important, but essential - both for your health and personal well-being as well as from a business perspective. An increasing number of companies are turning to health managers and sports scientists to drive these issues forward. Whether you are a private individual looking for incentives to exercise more at work, or a company health manager wanting to convince colleagues or superiors - the following article will help you to understand and communicate the importance of physical activity in everyday office life. Above all, however, you will learn how you can bring more movement into your own working day and that of your colleagues.

Article overview - more movement in the workplace

• little exercise - what happens in the body?
• Health consequences of lack of exercise (at the workplace)
• Why companies invest in health programmes
• Effective implementation of BGF in the field of exercise
• Practical example: Effective promotion of physical activity at E.ON SE

Too little exercise at work - this is what happens in the body

Firstly, we look at the immediate consequences of a lack of exercise and answer the question: "What happens to the body when we don't move enough?" We want to make it clear that exercise in everyday life and recreational sport must be considered separately - even competitive athletes can suffer from the effects of a lack of exercise in the office. If the following section is too "dry" for you, we recommend the TEDEd video by Murat Dalkilincwhich explains the processes of physical inactivity very impressively.

Shallow breathing and one-sided strain

Imagine you're sitting at your desk, deeply engrossed in your work. Your shoulders slump forwards and your spine takes on an unhealthy curve. This posture constricts your chest, leaving less room for your lungs to fully expand. As a result, you breathe more shallowly, which reduces the oxygen content in your blood. Less oxygen means that your brain is not supplied with enough - your cognitive performance and concentration decrease. You feel exhausted more quickly and your creativity diminishes.

Sitting for long periods of time also causes muscle tension, particularly in the neck, back and shoulders. This tension is caused by a lack of blood flow to the tissue, which in turn impairs the supply of nutrients to the muscles. Incidentally, this also happens when you sit ergonomically, as some areas are still overstressed and others understressed. Every structure in the body needs regular stimulation in order to develop and maintain itself. If certain functions are not utilised, the body breaks them down. One example is bone density, which is reduced if the bones are not subjected to sufficient stress.

Stuck fasciae lead to pain

Fasciae are the connective tissue that keeps our body in shape. They need movement and fluid to remain elastic. If there is a lack of one or even both, the fascia becomes matted, which can result in pain and restricted mobility. Water and nutrients enter the bloodstream via the intestines and are transported from there into the tissue. However, some structures, such as the meniscus, intervertebral discs and cartilage, are not supplied directly via blood vessels. They absorb nutrients from the surrounding tissue through a sponge-like process - this mechanism is activated by movement as old substances are squeezed out and new nutrients are absorbed.

Numb legs and minimised metabolism due to long periods of sitting

You may be familiar with the feeling that your legs go numb if you sit for too long. This numbness is a clear sign that your cells and nerves are not being adequately supplied. Prolonged sitting disrupts blood circulation, which inhibits the transport of oxygen and nutrients to the cells.

Sitting for long periods also has an impact on your metabolism: the body goes into energy-saving mode and metabolic activity drops dramatically - after an hour at your desk, your metabolic activity drops to 10 % of normal. This slowdown can lead to a build-up of fat in the arteries. The risk of cardiovascular disease increases by around 13 % if you regularly sit for long periods. In addition, insulin resistance increases the risk of type 2 diabetes by up to 90 %.

Video: The hidden risk of sitting

Exercise at work and mental health

Very few people realise that a lack of exercise also has a negative impact on mental health. Physical activity not only helps to combat physical stress, but also mental stress. In many cases, exercise can even be an effective treatment for depression. In addition, physical activity strengthens resilience and ensures that we are better able to deal with stress. You can find out more about this in our article "Mental health in the workplace - reducing mental stress".

So exercise after work is not enough!

The key to health lies in regular exercise - during work! Studies show that even intensive training after work does not compensate for the effects described above. Short breaks during the working day are essential to avoid the problems described above. Just standing up, stretching or going for a short walk promotes blood circulation and improves the supply of oxygen to the brain. These small movements not only boost your energy levels, but also improve your general health. An upright posture also contributes to better tissue supply and supports your general well-being. Active breaks are not only helpful - they are necessary to reduce health risks and maintain your quality of life in the long term, even in old age.

Consequences of a lack of Exercise in the workplace for good health

The expert for movement in the workplace in the Deep Care webinar on 15 November 2022

Prof Dr Anke Steinmetz - University Medicine Greifswald

Rehabilitation, diagnosis and treatment of structural and functional disorders, especially of the musculoskeletal system

Lack of exercise is a social problem and affects all occupational groups. A Spanish study from 2020 shows that 60 % of men and 50 % of women in Germany are "permanent sitters" (López-Valenciano PMC Public Health). The DKV Report 2023 shows that we are sitting more than ever before - an average of 9.2 hours a day. Office workers are particularly affected. One Study of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the risk in the home office is even higher than in the office.

It should be clear to everyone by now that sitting is unhealthy. However, the extent to which a lack of exercise impairs health is alarming. Prof Dr Anke Steinmetz has published 2022 in our Expert panel" webinar series The topic of "Sitting - the new smoking" was discussed and the health consequences of a lack of exercise were highlighted: back pain, tension, but also serious illnesses such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and an increased risk of cancer.

Studies on the consequences of too little exercise in everyday (working) life

Sitting for too long and a lack of physical activity are closely linked to various health problems. Essentially, the following lack of exercise can be broken down into the following four most common risks.

Musculoskeletal disorders, which include back pain, have been one of the main causes of sick days in companies for years. The DAK Health Report 2023 shows that musculoskeletal disorders were in second place among the causes of days lost in 2022, accounting for 17.7% of all sick days. Mental illnesses (15.1%) and respiratory diseases (19.9%) ranked third and first in the statistics.

Chronic back pain is one of the most common consequences of a lack of exercise

To illustrate how common back pain is, Prof Dr Anke Steinmetz referred to a survey from 2019, which showed that 66% of people in Germany had back pain at least once a month. 29% - i.e. almost one in three people - even at least once a week. As back pain is defined as chronic if it lasts three months or longer, this means that two out of three people in Germany suffer from chronic back pain.

Those affected see desk work as the cause of complaints

Anyone who now thinks that back pain is primarily caused by physical labour is wrong. As the survey revealed, most people cited "too little exercise/weak muscles" (37%) and "sitting at a desk at work" (36%) as the cause of their problems. Prof. Dr Anke Steinmetz summarises the statistics as follows: in 73% of cases, a lack of exercise was cited as the cause of back pain, with half of those affected seeing the cause of their complaints as being related to a lack of exercise at work.

Why companies invest in health programmes to promote exercise in the workplace

The role that exercise plays for each of us and how important sport and regular physical activity are for our health is clear. It is also clear that we can work on ourselves and try to prioritise exercise in our lives and make more time for it. For office workers, sufficient and regular exercise at work is only possible to a limited extent or is difficult to realise on their own. We therefore believe that employers have a special responsibility to actively support their employees in promoting physical activity and maintaining their health, as they are mainly tied to their desks as a result of their work.

Health and economy: the underestimated costs of lack of exercise in the office

A lack of exercise not only affects the health of employees, but also the success of a company. Back pain and other health problems lead to days lost and long-term sick leave, which can sometimes result in high costs. A high sickness rate has a strong impact on productivity and the working atmosphere due to many factors. On the one hand, an absent employee is unable to perform. On the other hand, the absent employee's direct colleagues are faced with a considerable additional workload, which not only negatively affects their productivity but also their job satisfaction.

However, many people fail to recognise what is probably the biggest problem of an "unhealthy" company: Presenteeism. Presenteeism describes the fact that employees come to work even though they are actually ill - for example, when an employee works despite having back problems. In view of the fact that two out of three people in Germany suffer from chronic back problems, it is clear how common presenteeism is in the office environment. The Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health assumes that 85 % of those who suffer from back pain go to work despite the discomfort. According to studies by the Business Health Index (BHI®) the average cost of lost productivity due to presenteeism is € 1,745 per employee per month. Even if employers can "afford" to forego positive effects such as employer attractiveness and employee loyalty through workplace health promotion, these figures clearly show the economic necessity for corresponding measures.

Exercise in the office not only prevents a loss of productivity, but also has the potential to increase employee productivity by improving cognitive performance and sharpening creative thought processes. From a business perspective, it therefore makes sense to invest in programmes and measures that enable employees to move more while at work. Prof. Dr Anke Steinmetz emphasises the importance of a wide variety of movement in health promotion measures in the field of movement and ergonomics.

Effective implementation of workplace health promotion (WHP) in the field of exercise and ergonomics

Anyone who has ever resolved to move more - whether it's doing more sport in their free time or reducing the amount of time spent sitting at work - knows how difficult it is. If you put yourself in the shoes of people who are trying to do this at company level for hundreds or thousands of employees, you can imagine the mammoth task they are facing. In the following, we will therefore look at how the promotion of physical activity can be effectively implemented in an office environment.

Here you will also find a concrete practical example on this topic

Motivating employees to exercise in the long term and integrating exercise into the work process

In the context of workplace health promotion, there are numerous approaches to promoting physical activity today. However, very few of them have the potential to demonstrably improve the health behaviour of employees in their everyday working lives in a measurable and long-term manner in order to promote more physical activity in the workplace. As a more in-depth evaluation and derivation of this finding is beyond the scope of this article, we will write a separate article on this topic.

Promoting physical activity must initially be offered alongside work

Essentially, it can be said that the majority of common WHF measures only serve health in the company secondarily, as they mostly concern health behaviour outside the workplace and often outside working hours. Examples include company fitness programmes, company sports, exercise breaks and bicycle leasing. According to Prof Dr Anke Steinmetz, occupational health management (OHM) is faced with the central task of not limiting exercise to breaks or time outside of work, but actively integrating it into the work process. In this way, more variety and activity can be guaranteed during the working day. Only a variety of exercise programmes that support employees with regular reminders and opportunities during work can contribute to improving health in the office environment in the long term.

Exercise at the workplace must be possible at no extra cost

A major challenge with exercise promotion measures such as seated bicycles, height-adjustable desks and regular breaks from sitting, which after all directly address the working reality of office employees, is that employees must be continuously reminded of these exercise options in order to actually bring more movement into the office. It is often not enough to simply provide the appropriate tools - additional stimuli are needed to motivate employees to use them regularly. In order to internalise healthy movement sequences, i.e. to create habits, these must become part of daily work over a period of around 2 months. Only if the exercise programmes maintain productivity do they have a chance of becoming part of the work routine, as otherwise they will not be used regularly. The aim of promoting physical activity in the workplace should therefore be to strengthen employees' healthy work routines. Routines are characterised by the fact that they are performed automatically - i.e. without cognitive resources - and are therefore not perceived as strenuous or time-consuming.

Practical example: Successful promotion of physical activity in the workplace at E.ON SE

The practical report "Rethinking workplace ergonomics", which appeared in January 2024 in the specialist journal ASU (Arbeitsmedizin | Sozialmedizin | Umweltmedizin), describes the piloting of a new health programme at E.ON SE to promote healthy working habits among office workers in the context of hybrid work (New Work). The E.ON health manager responsible for the project (Kirstin Berens) describes the common challenges in the office context. Employees spend long periods of time sitting down, which can have a negative impact on their health and well-being. In addition, hybrid workplace concepts and the trend towards working from home demand that health services can also be used in a hybrid way. Ultimately, current offers are rarely taken up and long-term improvements in employees' health behaviour fail to materialise.

The pilot project: personal AI assistance to reinforce healthy habits

Pilot results of the new BGF programme at E.ON SE

In order to promote the health of employees regardless of their location and in the long term, a digital, AI-based health coach from Deep Care called «Isa – ergo move»implemented. This uses sensor technology to recognise the health behaviour of employees and uses this to calculate an individual stress profile. This serves as the basis for many small, needs-orientated health interventions, which the AI health coach visually integrates into everyday working life via a small display. For example, the device guides targeted movement exercises, provides ergonomic posture corrections or reminds employees to drink enough. Employees were accompanied by the coach over several weeks in their daily work routine so that healthy behaviour could be consolidated and new work routines developed.

The pilot phase showed positive results: Over 90 % of participants reported an improvement in their health behaviour, 80 % consciously interrupted longer periods of sitting, and almost half used height-adjustable tables more frequently. The low-threshold nature of the programme and offline data processing were also rated positively. Further practical studies with «Isa – ergo move»based on almost 2,000 user feedbacks show that 80 % of participants report new health habits. The practical example of Deep Care and E.ON therefore impressively demonstrates how health promotion can be implemented as effectively and easily as possible while working at a desk.

For a detailed description of the pilot project and the detailed results, download the full article on the practical example: