Just 15 minutes of movement a day reduces work stress, survey shows

The study of 26,000 participants showed that after just two hours of continuous desk work, mental-health scores (using ASICs’ own system) began to drop and stress increased. It got worse after four hours of sitting solidly at a desk, with workers’ stress levels rising by 18%.

The 15-minute intervention

However, a ‘Desk Break’ experiment showed that 15 minutes of movement – which could be literally anything, from running and jumping t0 stretching, as long as it involved moving your body – improved participants’ mental state by 22.5% and increased their mental-health scores from 62/100 to 76/100.

Moreover, taking a desk break every day for just one week reaped considerable benefits:

• Stress levels were lowered by 14.7%
• Productivity increased by 33.2%
• Focus improved by 28.6%
• People said they felt 33.3% more relaxed
• They were also 28.6% calmer and more resilient
• 79.2% said they would be more likely to stay with their employers if movement breaks were offered regularly

Dr Brendon Stubbs, a leading researcher in exercise and mental health from King’s College London, said, ‘We have shown previously that just 15 minutes of exercise in leisure time can result in a meaningful improvement in people’s [mental-health] scores. But what surprised us with the Desk Break experiment was how powerful the 15-minute movement breaks were in improving wellbeing and reducing stress. It even changed people’s perceptions of their workplace for the better.’

‘Supporting employee mental wellbeing by creating a mentally healthy culture where people feel safe and supported means that employees can turn up to work each day confident, less stressed and empowered to do their job,’ said Hayley Jarvis, Head of Physical Activity at Mind. ‘Bringing a daily movement break into the working day is a small change that can make a huge difference.’

This experiment is the latest to explore the effects of exercise chunks in the workplace, such as the 15-minute challenge carried out by nearly 12,000 workers in Australia that showed a 14% increase in fitness and 12% increase in energy levels.

Need some easy fitness to break up a long day at the office? Try taking a walk at lunch, taking the stairs instead of the lift, doing some bodyweight squats (yes, really!) when you need a quick burst of energy, or alighting your train one stop earlier and getting your steps in on your commute.

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