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Objective. To provide a comprehensive understanding of the motivational factors and barriers that are important for compliance with high-intensity workplace physical exercise that is aimed at reducing musculoskeletal disorders. Method. The present study, which used semideductive, thematic, and structured in-depth interviews, was nested in a 20-week cluster randomised controlled trial among office workers. Interviews were conducted with 18 informants with diverse fields of sedentary office work who participated in strength training at the workplace for 20 minutes, three times per week. Organisational, implementational, and individual motives and barriers were explored. Results & Discussion. The results show that attention should be given to the interaction between the management, the employees, and the intervention, as the main barrier to compliance was the internal working culture. The results emphasised the need for a clear connection between the management's implementational intentions and the actual implementation. The results emphasise the importance of ensuring the legitimacy of the intervention among managers, participants, and colleagues. Moreover, it is important to centrally organise, structure, and ensure flexibility in the working day to free time for participants to attend the intervention. Recommendations from this study suggest that a thorough intervention mapping process should be performed to analyse organisational and implementational factors before initiating workplace physical exercise training.

Objective. To investigate the effect of workplace neck/shoulder strength training with and without regular supervision on neck/shoulder pain and headache among office workers. Method. A 20-week cluster randomized controlled trial among 351 office workers was randomized into three groups: two training groups with the same total amount of planned exercises three times per week (1) with supervision (3WS) throughout the intervention period, (2) with minimal supervision (3MS) only initially, and (3) a reference group (REF). Main outcome is self-reported pain intensity in neck and shoulder (scale 0–9) and headache (scale 0–10). Results. Intention-to-treat analyses showed a significant decrease in neck pain intensity the last 7 days in 3MS compared with REF: −0.5 ± 0.2 (P < 0.02) and a tendency for 3WS versus REF: −0.4 ± 0.2 (P < 0.07). Intensity of headache the last month decreased in both training groups: 3WS versus REF: −1.1 ± 0.2 (P < 0.001) and 3MS versus REF: −1.1 ± 0.2 (P < 0.001). Additionally, days of headache decreased 1.0 ± 0.5 in 3WS and 1.3 ± 0.5 in 3MS versus REF. There were no differences between the two training groups for any of the variables. Conclusion. Neck/shoulder training at the workplace reduced neck pain and headache among office workers independently of the extent of supervision. This finding has important practical implications for future workplace interventions.

Exercise on prescription can contribute to improvements in physical activity level and health-related quality of life in physically inactive patients with or at increased risk of developing lifestyle diseases. An acceptable number of participants achieved and maintained improvements in physical activity level and health-related quality of life.

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