Having bad posture is something that many of us are guilty of, often we fall into it as it provides short-term relief. But we must consider that it can ultimately lead to long-lasting damage. Recent research, which investigated the effects of technology on our posture, has coined the term ‘tech neck’ — pain and wrinkles across the neck and chest that are derived from time spent looking at computers and handheld devices.
Why is looking after our posture important?
If you maintain a bad posture, you’re not only at risk of ‘tech neck’, but it can lead to muscle problems and strains in other areas of the body too. In fact, poor posture is known to be one of the major causes of back problems. It depends on your posture as to which muscle groups feel the strain. Even if you’re not experiencing problems now, improving your posture is something that you should consider to prevent issues from arising in the future.
How to make this happen?
The easiest thing (and the one you should really start with) is to get a proper office chair. When picked correctly it will provide you with comfort during long sitting hours helping you to stay productive and ache-free. The best part – it doesn’t need to be expensive! Here is the collection of best budget office chairs reviewed by the team of Myergonomicchair.
If you have a desk job, you’re also at risk of causing back and neck misalignment. Research has even shown that sitting time has a positive correlation with lower back pain and neck-shoulder pain intensity. You’ll be pleased to hear that there are some actions that you can take to maintain a good posture when you’re at work, whilst offering back pain relief.
What steps can you take?
The first thing you can do is stay aware of the issue. This pushes you to make active changes and recognise when you could improve.
Focusing on body positioning
Ensuring that you’re positioning your body in the correct way is key — you’re likely to be sitting or standing like this for a long time so it’s important that you’re not doing damage. The way that we sit also has an effect on the way we walk, so remember to keep an eye on it.
Health experts say that good posture is where the body is in perfect alignment. This is where your spine can maintain its natural curvature and it isn’t strained. The best way to sit or stand in this way is to imagine there is a string attached to the top of your head that’s pulling you up. This should lengthen your stance, improve the way that you’re positioned, and stop you from slouching. You might find that slouching is temporarily comfortable, but over time it can lead to strain on already sensitised muscles and soft tissues.
We can’t avoid it if our job is to sit at a desk, so what can you do? Try and sit back in the chair rather than perching on the edge, as this offers your back some support and again, stops you from slouching. Do not sit as far back so that your feet dangle though.
If you sit on a high stool at work for example, tuck your feet in and rest them on the support. Positioning yourself so that your legs hang over the side of your chair causes gravity to pull your feet towards the ground and this tilts your pelvis backwards, which can lead to pain.
When it comes to your shoulders, make sure that they’re in a relaxed position. Avoid hunching them up so that you can lean on the arms of your chair or rolling them forwards.
Focus on getting the right equipment
Not only do we need to sit in the right way, but we need to be using equipment that supports our good posture. Speak to your employer if you think that you need extra support or that your current equipment is affecting your posture.
Having a supporting chair is an important piece of equipment to own. Arm rests can help provide support, but they need to be the correct height. If they’re too high, this can cause raised shoulders, and if they’re too low, it can cause leaning. As we mentioned before, make sure that your chair is the right height so that your feet are flat on the floor and your knees are parallel to, or just lower than, your hips. Your screen should be directly in front of you, around an arm’s length away with the top of the screen at your eye level. A neck rest can also be used to help you relax your neck when you’re not typing.
You could benefit from a cordless headset if you’re on the phone a lot. This is because you might find yourself cradling your phone between your ear and shoulder, which can add unnecessary strain to our neck, upper back and shoulders.
Stay mobile
Try and keep moving if you can. Even if you are sitting with good posture, being sat in the same place for a prolonged period can still be harmful. And, moving around at work has other fitness benefits too. In fact, when asked to interrupt their sitting at work every half an hour throughout the day, overweight/obese office workers showed a 32% reduction in lower back discomfort, compared to seated work. But how can you keep moving at work?
- Standing during phone call.
- Taking a break from the computer every 30 minutes and stretching your legs.
- Walk to a colleague’s desk instead of emailing them.
- Doing some desk exercises.