4. Discussion
hand dexterity
The regular engagement of the young and middle-aged adults in the three-month physical activity break was associated with positive effects on the juggling performance. Furthermore, we found a relationship between the performance changes in the juggling skills and performance changes in the reaction time. Accordingly, the more the participants increased their juggling performance, the more they improved their reaction time. In addition to the improvements in the juggling performance, the participants enjoyed the physical activity breaks very much and related that their participation had positive effects on their health and working routines.Although the participants in the intervention group improved their juggling skills, our participants were not very skilled jugglers after completing the intervention (3-ball- cascade time: 3.75 ± 4.23 s) compared to data in previous published juggling studies, where the participants were able to reach times between 20 to 180 s [Despite significant increases in juggling skills, motor abilities like finger and hand dexterity, reaction time, and dynamic balance did not change significantly. Although the intervention group somewhat increased their manual finger and hand dexterity, assessed with the Purdue Pegboard Test, the changes did not reach significance. This could be related to the fact that the participants already accomplished average results at the Purdue Pegboard Test at week 0 [Reaction time, assessed with the Fall Stick Test, decreased for the intervention group, without reaching a statistical significance. A similar result was reported by Ordnung et al. [The participants of the intervention group did improve their dynamic balance over time in all directions of the Y Balance Test, but this was also observed in the control group. In both groups, the changes were not statistically significant. Despite following the instruction for the Y Balance Test as commonly used [The participants agreed that the physical activity breaks were enjoyable and were diversified and lively. This is important for the compliance and continuation of the training. Only participants who accomplished 67% of the intervention (16 out of 24 sessions) were included in the analysis. In similar studies, the required minimal attendance rate was between 67 and 70% [Furthermore, we can conclude that the organization and implementation of the physical activity breaks in an online format were sophisticated and successful. Firstly, a major benefit of the physical activity break was the easy feasibility of the intervention. The participants could practice at any time during their working hours at their office and didn’t need to change their clothes to do the training or shower afterwards. Secondly, due to some restrictions, which did not allow working fulltime in the office (COVID-19) during the intervention period, the participants had to work from home. Because we were using an online platform and a small number of necessary materials for the intervention, it was still possible for the participants to perform the physical activity breaks at home. This might be important for future interventions, as the proportion of home office hours has increased in the last years. Moreover, the evaluation questionnaire after each physical activity break allowed us to monitor whether the sessions were performed regularly by the participants and if there was a need to adapt the planned progression of the exercises.Nevertheless, this pilot study also has some limitations. Regarding the results of the physical activity assessment, nearly all our participants achieved the Austrian physical activity recommendations. Therefore, our participants were already very active at the start of the intervention. This could be a reason why we have not found significant changes in the motor ability variables. Another reason could be the training volume of the physical activity breaks. For this physical active sample, it is possible that the training volume (~26.5 min of coordination training/week) was too low to lead to improvements in motor abilities. Although no participant of the intervention group was regularly practicing intense coordinative and/or motor training, they mentioned different kinds of physical activities (e.g., dancing, martial arts, yoga, cross-country skiing, climbing) in the physical activity questionnaire that require a specific amount of coordinative ability to be performed. Therefore, it is possible that the sample of this study already had a higher level of motor fitness. In addition, our sample had a positive approach to physical activity and was enjoying doing sports. This might have been a reason to volunteer for the present study, as it was known to be a challenge to address inactive employees and employees with a higher risk for poor health [