Breaking Down Breaks
Gaming and desking are different animals when it comes to taking breaks. Most professions have set break schedules and amount of time for break. However, in our ever-changing and digitized world, we continue to see inadequate breaks both in duration and quality.
What I’m saying is that we often don’t take the breaks we need, and if we do, we are taking inadequate ones at that. Ideally, I would recommend getting up to move every 30-45 minutes for a one minute reset, coupled with a 30-minute break every three hours. This is in a perfect world, but you need to be mindful of when and how you’re taking your breaks.
I’ve enlisted the help of Landon Gorbenko, who is the founder of Vertex Performance. He specializes in mental performance in the Esports/Gaming sector. I’ll be covering the physical aspect of why breaks matter while he’ll discuss the mental component.
Breaks Through the Physical Lens
Alarm Bells
When we sit or stand for prolonged periods, we begin to feel the tight, stiff, or burning sensations in the form of a stimulus to our brain. The usual fix is to readjust in our chair and go right back to work. Be conscious of this! This is your body telling you I need to move! So go get a drink of water, talk to Patty in HR (she is just a gem), or do some strengthening exercise, or stretching.
Here is a recent article that covers desk exercise no matter your fitness level or amount of time. Project LIT
Peak Performance
Pain and discomfort while working may seem like a surface level of annoyance, but it actually can affect your performance (Here’s a study that sums it up quite nicely). I won’t dive into this too much as Landon will do a much better job at explaining this than me.
Combating Short/Long Term Effects
In today’s culture, we are incredibly short-sighted when it comes to results. We want it now whatever it is….I want it now or at the maximum two-day shipping. The lovely thing about taking microbreaks is that they provide both short term and long term benefits. These benefits include both pain reduction and perceived improvements in overall performance.
Metabolic Consideration
Newton said it best, “A body at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force (in this case your brain).” Sitting for extended periods tends to lead to more extended periods of inactivity. When we don’t move our body lets us know.
Do you remember when you were in a movie theater and were unable to stretch your legs? Then as soon as you were able to, the movement of the knee felt so good. Exactly!
Your body craves motion. Lack of motion can make us feel lethargic on a mental and a metabolic level. This seemingly innocuous feeling can lead to more serious issues like cardiovascular problems and Diabetes if left unchecked.
The takeaway here is to take breaks and stay in motion, as your body will thank you both in the short term and in the long term.
I yield the floor to Landon Gorbenko, who will cover the mental performance side of sedentary behavior.
Breaks Through the Mental Lens
We have all heard the term “mental fatigue” floating around there. We’ve also all seen the insane rate of burnout of people in esports. But really, what even is mental fatigue and burnout? We are constantly throwing out those words, but at this point they have pretty much just become buzzwords that do not have meaning.
Even though these terms are thrown around willy-nilly right now, they do actually have some profoundly negative consequences for players in esports. The key here is to create knowledge and understanding about “what” they are and “why” they happen and “how” to fight against them.
Just going by the theme of this article, you can probably guess that breaks are going to tie into this somehow. Well, you’re right.
Mental fatigue doesn’t function like physical fatigue does. There isn’t some resource that eventually burns out like what happens when you lift weights. Rather, mental fatigue is more of an evaluation process that is constantly happening inside of your brain. Over time, your brain begins to value something less and less and less… and less. The longer you do something, the less value your brain puts on that task and wants to find ways to force you into shifting things up.
And what does it do? It kills your focus, motivation, decision-making skills, enjoyment, and pretty much anything else that helps you become a better gamer. BOOM, burnout hits. Esports career is done.
I bet you can start to see how this ties into breaks now. By taking breaks between games, you’re preventing your brain from entering the state of, “Wow I don’t want to do this anymore”. During those breaks, your brain is able to focus its attention elsewhere, use different skills, or even just veg out for a moment without having an onslaught of information hitting it from trying to focus in League of Legends.
After a little while of that break, your brain is actually going to start getting excited to get back into game. If your mind is hyped to play, you’re going to be getting so much more out of that experience and it’s no going to feel like a chore. Most people bypass the break stage and just continue to play. It becomes a habit and there’s very little enjoyment or development that comes from it. But they continue anyway just because that’s what they’ve conditioned themselves to do.
Long story short, learning how to take breaks every few games and even taking a day or two off of gaming each week allows your brain to change things up and prevents it from starting to see your game as a chore.
The moment it becomes a chore is the moment you stop learning, and we need to prevent that from happening. And just to make sure I sound like a broken record: breaks are one of the best ways to prevent your brain from starting to hate the game you love.
Closing the Case on Breaks
Finally, I shouldn’t have to say this but taking a break does not include swapping your computer screen to mindless scroll on your phone screen.
Look, we all know these changes won’t happen overnight, but the realization that it’s happening is crucial for your health. Whether you are finishing a word document, sitting in a boring Zoom call, or battling on the Rift, taking a break is a must.
Start small by taking a break between games or milestones in typing. As you become more accustomed to these small habits, you’ll subconsciously read the tell tale signs that you need to step away.