Spring 2016

Get Moving with These Apps

Fitness Technology

Javairia Asif

Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock.

Four hours have gone by, yet you remain seated at your desk, continuously staring at your screen, working away. Little do you know that your desk job is taking a bit of your life away every day. The latest research reveals that sitting for long periods at a time can lead to major health issues: heart disease, cancer, obesity, and diabetes [i]. A study by the University of Leicester and Loughborough University in England conducted a meta-analysis of 18 studies (involving roughly 800,000 participants) and found that sitting for long periods increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and death. The most alarming detail from this study was that sitting was shown to be a risk independent of exercise—meaning that a person who regularly visits the gym still has a heightened risk of these poor health outcomes if he or she is inactive for most of the rest of the day [i].

What can be done? There seem to be conflicting theories on the best way to prevent the effects of long term sitting, but one important takeaway is to break up sitting and sedentary time.

While some of us are good at remembering to get active, it may not come with such ease for others. There are plenty of apps that can be used for this very purpose; they remind you to get active and take breaks from your work. These applications include:

Eyeleo

Eyeleo reminds the user to rest their eyes. This app assists by reminding oneself to put less strain on his/her eyes by organizing two kinds of breaks: short breaks (dims the screen and prompts quick exercises for your eyes) and long breaks (disables screen for a specified period)[ii].

Workrave

Workrave (accessible on both Windows and Linux platforms) assists by providing reminders for taking breaks, and to limit screen time by adding a daily limit constraint [ii]. Aside from providing specific details such as how long each break is, you can also select from a list of exercises that Workrave offers you to do during your breaks. This app can conveniently structure your day and shows a small window on your desktop so you can easily see when your next break is coming up [ii].

PC Work Break

PC Work Break is similar to Work Rave in the sense that it reminds you to take micro breaks and stretching breaks. It also focuses on eye exercises and encourages to take walks to move away from your desk. PC Work Break can be installed on Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, and 8. While other apps do not have a feature to provide professional stretch demos, PC Work break does. It also offers flexible break settings, break compliance statistics, Unicode support, 32- and 64-bit support, and multi-language support.

EVO

Evo is a web-based software so it is fully cross platform compatible. Similar to EyeLeo, Evo’s focus is on eye strain. The web-based software consists of three different settings: 20-20-20 (for every twenty minutes staring at a screen, you will focus on something twenty feet away for twenty seconds), 60-5 (sixty minutes staring at a screen followed by a five minute break), and custom (set your own break mode) [ii].

Bonus: if you use the Chrome browser, an add-on can be installed to enable desktop notifications through EVO.

Get moving

By taking breaks frequently, you can lower your risk of harmful long term consequences and avoid dry, tired and irritated eyes. You do not have to remain at a desk to the full extent of your physical limits. Take a break, put less strain on your eyes and use the tools mentioned above to have a healthier and more productive work life!

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