Investigating the Immediate Influence of Moderate Pedal Exercises during an Assembly Work on Performance and Workload in Healthy Men.

Mohammed H Alhaag,Lamjed Mansour,Atef M Ghaleb,Mohamed Z Ramadan

doi:10.3390/healthcare9121644

Abstract

Physical inactivity has increased in prevalence among adults in industrialized and developing countries owing to the fact that the majority of job situations require individuals to remain seated for extended periods of time. This research aims to evaluate the influence of cycling on a stationary bike while executing a keyboard assembly task on the task completion time, error percentage, and physiological and subjective measurements. The physiological measures were electroencephalography (EEG) and electrocardiographic (ECG) signal responses, whereas the subjective measures were subjective workload ratings and subjective body discomforts. Two variables were evaluated, namely assembly methods (with versus without pedal exercises at a moderate intensity) and session testing (pre- versus post-test). Thus, the repeated measures design (i.e., assembly method by session testing of participants) was used. According to the completion time, error %, participant self-reports, and ECG and EEG statistical analysis data, the participants’ performances in the keyboard assembly task did not decrease while they performed pedaling exercises (p > 0.05). Additionally, when participants completed the assembly task while executing the pedaling exercises, the mean inter-beat (RR) intervals significantly reduced (p < 0.05) while the mean heart rate increased (p < 0.05), which mean that pedaling exercises caused physical workloads on the participants. Participant performance was unaffected by performing a workout while performing the assembly activity. Thus, administrations should encourage their employees to engage in short sessions of moderate-intensity exercise similar to the suggested exercise in the study to improve a person’s physical health during work without interfering with the effectiveness of work.

Highlights

Physical inactivity has become more prevalent in working environments in developed and developing countries because in most work environments employees are required to remain seated for extended periods of time [1]
The statistical analysis revealed no statistically significant difference in completion time between assembly methods (F (1, 15) = 4.187, p = 0.059). This finding indicated that pedaling during an assembly activity did not affect the participants’ performance in terms of task completion time
The statistical analysis indicated no significant difference in the mean value of the percentage error between the assembly methods (F (1, 15) = 0.031, p = 0.863)

Summary

Introduction

Physical inactivity has become more prevalent in working environments in developed and developing countries because in most work environments employees are required to remain seated for extended periods of time [1]. Sedentary behaviors are characterized by long periods of sitting or the absence of physical activity, as evidenced by their association with low-energy expenditure values [2,3]. These behaviors may lead to adverse biological consequences, such as increased cardiovascular risk and body weight gain [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. Ergonomic policies regard the execution of physical workload as an opportunity to reduce sedentary behaviors at work as a priority, emphasizing sitting as the prime outcome for future workplace action [8,26]

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