Downtown Syracuse consists of mostly office space, although the number of residences has been growing steadily. Most people pay no attention to their posture, surroundings, and ergonomics until it becomes a problem. Unfortunately, your body has the ability to adapt to perform the everyday tasks that are put in front of it, without letting you know a thing. But sooner or later, the body will adapt to a point that inhibits function, and then you will feel sore, stiff, and achy. My favorite line that I hear from patients is “I’ve been doing this for years, and its never felt like this before”. That is because your body has adapted to a point of no return and now its time to let you know something is not right.
So do yourself a favor and don’t let it get to this point. Follow these 5 simple steps and prevent yourself from ever getting to that point of pain.
1. Be mindful of your ergonomics
Ergonomics has become a buzz word over the past decade, but what does it mean in the office? Sit up straight in your chair with your back up against the back rest. It is best to have your arm rests as snug to your body as possible, allowing your arms to hang at your sides. When your arms are angled out more than 15 degrees from your body, the Upper Trapezius muscle is activated. This muscle is responsible for the most common trigger point in the human body, so it would be wise to keep it as relaxed as possible. Position your chair so that your hips, knees, and elbows are bent at 90 degrees and your feet rest flat on the floor. From here, the keyboard and monitor should be directly in front of you with the top of the monitor located at eye level.
2. Stand up for your health
Sitting is being called the new smoking due to a number of recent correlations to health. People who sit for 80% of their time have a 45% increase in cardiovascular and metabolic mortality. Prolonged sitting has also been linked to elevated cholesterol, high blood pressure, and people are twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease when they sit for extended periods of time. So stand up and walk around your desk at least twice an hour, even if its for 2 minutes. Stand up while you are talking on the phone, or take your zoom mobile, or if you have a 1-2-1 meeting with someone, make it a walking meeting.
3. Stretch
Prolonged sitting can allow the psoas muscle running from your low back to your legs to shorten. When you stand up, the shortened hip flexor muscle can pull your low back into an increased curvature, which can compress the lumbar spine and lead to low back pain or possibly even disc damage. You can stretch your psoas muscle by resting your knee on a table or bench as shown, and pushing your hips forward while leaning backward. Repeat for both sides at least two times a day.
4. Switch out your desk chair.
There are a number of things you can use that are better for you than an office chair. I use an exercise ball in the office, that doubles as patient treatment tool. Sitting on an exercise ball does two things for your body; the first is that it requires your abdominal muscles to maintain active throughout the day. The second thing is that because your spine can move around, instead of just resting up against a back rest, you are actually training movement patterns for your spine which helps to prevent from the dreadful ‘bent over and thrown out back’. Other options which tend to be more expensive include wobble or Kore chairs, sit to stand desks, and the piece de resistance: Treadmill desks.
5. Drink Water
You can never drink too much water. Well I guess you can, but it would be extremely difficult. You should drink eight 8oz glasses of water a day. This number increases for every caffeinated drink (coffee or tee) or alcoholic beverage you have that day, so you can feel free to plan ahead. Getting a drink of water also give you the opportunity to get up from your desk and walk around. 60% of your body is made up of water and your body is at it’s optimum functioning capacity when it is well hydrated. So take a drink to your health.
If you think your ergonomics might be leading to some discomfort, schedule an appointment with Cuse Chiro. Or pass this information along to your Office Manager, and we can schedule an ergonomic office presentation at your office!