If you, like many of us spend much of your day sitting at a desk in sedentary postures, this ca inevitably put you at increased risk for causing problems to your back and / or neck.
Here we are going to go through 4 easy to follow tips to help your back remain healthy at work.
1) Maintain good posture
During sitting at your desk, place your feet flat on the floor and keep your back against the chair, without slouching. Your head should be in a neutral position with the ears directly above your shoulders. Sit with your shoulders square and avoid rounding your lower back, which in turn can cause your head and shoulders to slump forward. Ensure your chair height is comfortable. To keep natural alignment, sit on your butt bones.
2) Monitor / Keyboard set up
Monitor screen should be directly in front of you with the center of the screen level with your chin. If the monitor is too low, you will drop your head, increasing stress on your neck. A laptop is certainly not good for long term postures.
Position the keyboard close enough to you so your elbows are bent approximately 90 degrees when typing, so you are not stretching, this is the same for your mouse.
3) Stand and move around more
Maintaining good posture all day can be difficul and can be fatiguing, believe it or not, the longer you sit, the harder it is to hold good posture. Also, more compressive forces go through our spinal discs with sitting more than standing, which can make them weaken. Your disc like movement! Each day, try to spend at least an hour or two on your feet that you would otherwise spend in a chair.
Some people prefer astanding desk. If a standing desk is not an option for you, there are inexpensive desktop converters that enable you to keep your desk and temporarily convert it to a standup desk.
4) Desk material
Many of us are looking at sheets and paper documents on the desk, which can cause neck issues. Try can bring the sheets to you, or envest in a standing paper holder.
Get in touch to find out more.
Dynamic Osteopaths
01564330773