Barriers and facilitators of participants and non-participants of physical activity at the workplace

Interventions for health promotion have been applied in various contexts of society. Workplaces, due to their behavioral and environmental particularities, have a great potential to be explored. One of these interventions in the workplace is exercise, popularly called in Brazil Labor Gymnastics. The objective of the study was to describe self-reported barriers and facilitators for workers participating and not participating in an exercise program at the workplace. We randomized 20 sectors from the 65 participating in the exercise program at a university community; there were 334 employees, 151 of which (45.11 +/- 10.22 years) participated and 183 who did not participate in the program (43.61 +/- 9.38 years). A questionnaire was administered to workers in these sectors, which addressed the reasons for participating or not participating in the exercise program. The main facilitators were related to the possibility of improving health (76.16% of employees) and increasing the willingness to work (55.63% of the employees). The main barriers occur because workers do not like the intervention (19.67% of the employees) or have a lack of time (18.78% of the workforce). The findings in this study help to rethink exercise interventions in the workplace. This practice should seek to reduce occupational barriers (e.g., available time at work to exercise) and promoting the factors that facilitate adhesion to this therapeutics.