29-07-2025
How Movement Breaks Impact Your Workday
E ven once the summer vacation season winds down, people shouldn't stop taking breaks throughout their workdays, says Melissa Painter, CEO and founder of Breakthru, an app that guides users through two-minute movement breaks.
We spoke to Painter about the research on breaks and what her team has learned about taking better breaks from the Breakthru app's two million monthly active users. Here are excerpts from our conversation, edited for length and clarity:
What does the research tell us about how the typical workday shapes our movement and wellbeing?
Breakthru was birthed out of two bodies of research about modern work. One was that people had stopped taking breaks and were forced to be very still, sit at a desk, or stay on their feet all day long. We think a lot about the relationship between moving and fitness, but moving has a huge impact on our brain and how we're able to think.
We saw that people were holding their breath during their workday, for example, even just reading their emails. That's a normal response when you're surrounded by information coming at you. Your adrenal response is to freeze and to get ready. The problem is when that's a perpetual state because your email inbox is flooded. Then you are operating in your everyday workday as though you're on a battlefield.
Another fact that a lot of people don't realize is that sitting still burns mental energy. When we're all second graders, people say, 'Sit still to think hard,' and you get this idea that you have to sit still to be smart or to focus, but the truth is humans think better on their feet. Most of us have a lived experience of getting stuck on a problem, going for a walk and just having that gorgeous moment when the solution comes to you. Or you go for a run to shake off a bad mood. We've all experienced it, but there's neuroscience behind it.
What does the research say about the frequency and types of breaks that are most effective?
The answer is more is better, but one break a day is better than none. Also, the truth is the minute you start taking one, you've gotten over the hurdle of giving yourself permission to have this idea that it's okay to take breaks, and that is an enormous unlock from there on out. Especially people my age—I'm talking middle-aged and up—we get into a relationship with our body where it hurts and we're so tired at the end of our workday from mental fatigue. We're ready for Netflix and a bottle of wine and a couch. The truth is, that's not good either. We should be moving throughout our day.
How can movement breaks benefit teams, and how can leaders encourage them?
All of these things need to be part of the workday, part of the shared workplace culture. The reason we knew that was from looking at people who were the least likely to take care of themselves at work. They were the best performers. They were the type-A leaders. They were caregivers, they were nurses, they were working moms. They were all of the people who trained themselves to soldier on and put others first. The only way to get those people who need breaks desperately is to say to them, this isn't for you. This is for your team and you need to model it as a manager and as a leader.
Our theory about having a good work ethic makes it hard. Our expectations for ourselves make it hard. Instead, leaders should openly say to their team, 'It's those moments where I think I can't take a break at all when I know it's the moment I need it most.' Or, 'Look, it's just two minutes. Are you really in a workday where two minutes is not going to find its space into your day?' Talk about both the personal benefits of taking breaks and how a team that takes micro breaks before they crash has more energy and more resilience.
We've also seen that micro breaks can be a team-building tool. There's some really interesting science about how moving in sync with others has all of these other profound benefits. It's a way of indicating to others that you are willing to cooperate. It builds team trust between people that have never met each other before.
