Working from home brings with it many potential health benefits. Less commuting time should mean more time to get physically active, right?
The reality, for many of us, is that wfh means sitting and staring at a screen for hours struggling to find the time or even remember to get up and take a break.
WFH Challenges
Gone are those incidental opportunities that happen in the office to get up off the chair to go see a colleague for a meeting. Instead back-to-back virtual meetings have seen many of us get out of the habit of leaving our chairs and screens for hours on end.
Sitting all day without breaks contributes to body aches and pains which can be incredibly distracting. Experts predict that worker compensation claims may skyrocket partly due to the less-than-ideal ergonomic set ups that are a result of wfh.
Studies show that sedentary behaviour (70% of the Australian workforce is classified as sedentary) can also have a negative impact on our energy, productivity and ability to focus. On top of this, our brain is having to expend more energy picking up cues when talking to colleagues on video. It’s also exhausting staring at your own image all day! No wonder getting strategies to help with Zoom Fatigue has become a priority of organisations globally.
Bite-Size Breaks
But how do we find the time to disrupt sedentary screen time in this new world of seemingly never-ending virtual meetings?
Before the pandemic hit, you’d find me at conferences and workplaces around the world getting employees up and moving for energising stretches and movement breaks. When live events were no longer, I thought my business was over. Little did I know that the demand for these bite-size ‘wellness breaks’ would be greater than ever.
Creating opportunities for team members to get up move or take a moment of mindfulness are finding their way in to the virtual meeting space as an easy way to bust Zoom fatigue plus boost connection, productivity and happiness.
Wether together as a team or as an individual, the key is to make these little moments of movement small so that the ‘no time’ excuse doesn’t get in the way.
3 Zoom Fatigue Busting Moves
Stand Up, Sit Down.
Push your feet in the ground firmly, pull in your abdominal muscles and stand up. Then sit back down again. Repeat this 10 times or more. Oxygen is energy for our cells, organs and muscles. When we get physically active, our heart is able to deliver that oxygen more efficiently helping us feel less fatigued. Make this move a habit as you’re dialling in to your next meeting.
Walk on the spot.
Imagine the ground is hot sand and walk (or jog) as fast as you can for 2-minutes (or less). According to a study at Stanford University, sitting back down after a walk increases creative output by 62%. Those creative juices continue to flow hours after sitting back down. Use these walking breaks as soon as you’ve finished a meeting to get your brain ready for the next one.
Roll Downs.
To release pressure in the shoulders, neck and lower back, plus take eyes away from the screen, roll down towards your toes (only as far as feels good). Have a gentle bend in your knees and softly shake your head, ‘yes’ x 4, and ‘no’ x 4. Slowly roll up and repeat. Taking a brief break from your screen improves the ability to focus as the brain is built to detect and respond to change. You can also do this sitting and pretend you’ve dropped your pen!
Decide as a team to integrate stretch and movement breaks into your meetings. You can find a demonstration here – 3 Ways to Bust Zoom Fatigue.
Or if you want to sneak them in, check out 5 Sneaky Zoom Meeting Stretches for Screen & Body Fatigue
Zoom Fatigue may be real but finding moments to break up virtual meetings with movement can make a big difference. And all you need is 2-minutes. Can you find 2-minutes?
By Lizzy Williamson
About the author
Dubbed by the US media as ‘the excuse-buster from Down-Under’, Lizzy is on a mission to help people integrate little moments of movement in their day to transform the way they work and feel.
She brings her energy-boosting, bite-size exercise breaks to companies and conferences around the world, including Amazon, KFC and Westpac, and is the regular “fitness guru” on Australian morning television. Lizzy is the founder and author of Two Minute Moves, where she shares her journey of overcoming postnatal depression, two minutes at a time.
She is a certified Personal Trainer, and her Two Minute Moves have been featured on Good Morning America, Today Show, Studio 10, Women’s Health, Prevention and many more.
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