Last year the Holsworth Research Initiative provided support for Jayden to examine the relationship between exercise, workplace performance and mental health during the COVID-19 lockdown. As Jayden summarises:

We found a positive relationship between physical activity level and physical and mental work ability, which suggested that people who were more active had less job-related stresses (both physical and mental).

Exercise and work performance

The Australian government Exercise and Physical Activity guidelines recommend a weekly minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-vigorous aerobic exercise, and two sessions of strength exercise. Even before the COVID-19 lockdown, only 15 per cent of Australian adults met this minimum amount.

Jayden’s study found that people who met these weekly exercise guidelines felt they were both physically and mentally better able to do their jobs.

• People getting enough aerobic exercise were twice as likely to rate themselves as having “rather good” or “very good” work ability, and
• People who met the strength exercise guidelines were 1.5 times as likely to rate themselves as having “rather good” or “very good” work ability.

These findings suggest a link between exercise and work performance. The next step is to examine a potential cause and effect relationship by implementing an exercise intervention and assessing changes in workers’ presenteeism (productivity) and absenteeism (sick leave).

The barriers to exercise

As Jayden says:

We found that the perceived barriers to exercise were lack of resources (such as gym equipment), lack of skill or expertise and lack of willpower. If we can provide solutions to the first two barriers, then people may find it easier to overcome that last barrier and start a new exercise program.

What happens next?

In 2021, Jayden and his team plan to offer local Bendigo employees a tailored exercise program with their choice of platform, either remote/telehealth, face-to-face or a combination of the two. This means people can access exercise expertise at their workplace and/or online via a telehealth platform (e.g. Physitrack). The research team anticipates that this additional support and guidance might facilitate greater ongoing exercise adherence, and subsequently, greater improvements in health and productivity.

Stay tuned to this blog to learn more about these exercise programs.

Do you want to learn more?

Read:

• Australian Governments guidelines on exercise and physical activity in Australia.
• World Health Organisation 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour.
• One of the many news articles about Jayden’s research findings.

Jayden’s research supports the Holsworth Research Initiative theme:

To address the global challenges of inactivity and chronic disease

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NSW Ambulance workplace fitness

Being a paramedic is a tough job. Paramedics are among the most frequently injured health professionals in Australia. The job can be even tougher in rural and remote areas.

NSW Ambulance wanted to help their rural teams. They ran a pilot workplace exercise program for six months across Western NSW between 2017 and 2018. They wanted the program to provide guidance on the best ways to improve their paramedics’ work-related fitness and reduce their physical injury rates.

Tailored exercise programs reduce workplace injury

Dr Jayden Hunter and his team assessed this program and reported to the NSW Ambulance on how it had worked – some of their preliminary findings were published in the Occupational Medicine journal. They found that:

• paramedics were not fitter than the general population, despite their physically demanding job, and
• rural paramedics would benefit from tailored workplace exercise programs to build their muscular strength.

This was the first study globally to investigate how a dedicated health coach can support a workplace exercise program for paramedics.

Global Challenge of Inactivity

This research fits with the Holsworth Research Initiative aim to:

address the global challenges of inactivity and chronic disease

Dr Hunter has received funding from the Holsworth Research Initiative in the La Trobe School of Rural Health so he can analyze the data from the six-month program.

He will use the funds to analyse data for a journal article to contribute to the growing body of knowledge around ways individually tailored workplace exercise programs can benefit paramedics in rural and regional areas.

He will share the results of their research with other organisations interested in using workplace exercise programs to benefit their workforce.

We look forward to providing updates on the team’s findings.

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Poor bike fit seems to anticipate a range of non-traumatic injuries including neck, hip and back pain, knee strain and aching hands. The research team wanted to help cyclists improve their comfort on the bike and reduce the likelihood of these injuries. At the six-month mark, we checked in to see how the study was going.

La Trobe cycling community powers our research!

Rodrigo and Jayden sent a shout-out to cyclists through La Trobe social media. Thanks to the support of the enthusiastic La Trobe sports community they got a record number of responses – 124 enquiries resulted in 35 volunteers enrolling in the study.

The volunteers self-assessed for power and fitness using a vertical jump test, a wall squat and a sit-and-reach test. They submitted bike and body measurements and a video of them riding on an indoor bike trainer for the team to assess. They also rated how they felt on the bike, using a comfort bespoke scale.

Telehealth helps people living in regional areas access specialist services

The study helped cyclists learn more about their bike fit and levels of fitness. The success of the telehealth strategy is vitally important. As Rodrigo says:

The strategy to offer bike fit via Telehealth is very important. If we want to engage more people to use bikes for exercise, particularly those in regional and remote areas with limited access to specialised services, these services have to be available to these cyclists.

More than 50% of cyclists report discomfort when riding

Rodrigo and Jayden found that even when their volunteers had adequate strength, power and flexibility, 53% reported riding with musculoskeletal pain. When they looked at the cycling videos, they realised that over half of their volunteers had bike positions that potentially increased the load on the joints. Some had a seat position that was too high or too low, potentially increasing knee joint loads, and some had their handlebars too far forward, potentially increasing strain on the lower back and neck. The team were able to assist cyclists in recognising the problem and improve their bike fit.

We look forward to reporting on the lasting impact of their intervention in another six months. Calls for further recruitment of cyclists will be sent out early in 2021 with the aim to increase the power of the study.

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Dr Rodrigo Bini has received funding from the Holsworth Research Initiative in the La Trobe Rural Health School to investigate how to improve athletes’ performance as they move between the cycling and running stages of a triathlon – this is the stage where athletes cycle into the transition zone, change from their bike shoes to their running shoes, and then commence their run.

The cycle-to-run transition

How badly is athletic performance affected in this time? According to the Peak Performance website, French researchers found that 70% of national-level triathletes remained up to 10% below their average running velocity over the first kilometre of the run phase. This means an athlete who can maintain performance during this time will gain a crucial edge over their competitors!

Evidence not anecdote

There is a wealth of advice available for athletes and coaches on how to move between these stages, but much of this advice is based on anecdotal evidence and personal experience. It is unclear whether these performance issues are due to  muscle fatigue, oxygen or glycogen dips, blood redistribution or ‘neural catch up’.  There is a lack of evidence-based research in this area.

As Dr Bini explains:

This review will help triathletes and coaches base their strategies on research-based evidence rather than anecdotal evidence and personal experience.

Enabling sports people to perform better

As a first step, Dr Bini will review the existing studies on pedaling cadence, intensity, drafting, shoe-cleat position, training, and bike fitting, and use this body of research to make recommendations for triathletes and their coaches.

This research is a result of the Holsworth Research Institute aim:

Optimising function and performance for individuals and enabling sports people to perform better and compete more successfully.

We look forward to providing updates on this research in a future post.

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At a recent HRI Active Individuals research theme seminar Dr Jayden Hunter addressed the future of workplace exercise programs in a time of COVID-19.

 Most adult Australians were not meeting Australian public health guidelines for physical activity in adults even before the COVID-19 lockdown. What has happened since and what are effective ways to improve participation and benefits from workplace exercise programs?

Jayden and his colleagues are investigating this. As a first step their study will review:

• If exercise behaviours change under COVID-19 working conditions,

• If physical activity behaviour is related to absenteeism and presenteeism, and

• the barriers and facilitators to participation in exercise for Australian and New Zealand workers.

Can workplace exercise improve health?

Then they will explore if small doses of workplace exercise interventions can improve health and increase productivity. These small breaks will mean people can take part in regular physical activity but lower perceived barriers to participation, as participants won’t need special equipment, or to spend time getting changed and showered.

Dr Hunter says that the results of the study will assist in delivering effective telehealth services to people during and after the pandemic to improve their health and wellbeing through physical activity.

“By understanding what facilitates and impairs people to exercise, we can inform researchers, employers and policymakers to undertake change to increase physical activity behaviour, and we hope this will be of particular importance for people located in rural locations who might have limited access to safe exercise opportunities and guidance.”

Complete the survey to find out more

To participate in this study please complete the survey.

We look forward to sharing the results and recommendations of this research.

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