One of the important functions of the human brain is voluntary control of movements and motor activities combined with perceptual, cognitive and affective processes. This paper introduces the emerging field of study, named hereby as physical neuroergonomics, that focuses on the knowledge of human brain activities in relation to the control and design of physical tasks. Motor, cognitive and emotional aspects and their inter-relationships in connection to physical ergonomics are considered. A review of recent advances in functional electroencephalography (EEG), with special accent on the time domain analyses of the human brain activity in selected motor tasks, is also presented. The reported studies of isometric elbow-flexion contractions confirmed that the cerebral-cortex system controls the extent of muscle activation and is responsible for smoothing out high-speed motor control processes. Furthermore, the emotional attitudes of the subject to the activity can compel performance beyond acceptable loading through psychological pressure or necessity. The discussed results are important to one's understanding of human limitations and capabilities on a variety of physical tasks, and may ultimately help explain the mechanisms of musculoskeletal injuries at work. These results also underscore the need for a novel approach to workplace studies, i.e. neuroergonomics design.