It is a well known and unfortunate consequence of sitting behind your desk all day: back pain. The ones among us who work at a desk or sit for a significant portion of their day probably have had some experience with it.
A percentage of 80% of the sitting working population to be exact.
The above mentioned percentage is far too much in our opinion. We live in a time and age where we have tools, knowledge and tricks to overcome most of life’s hurdles that come across our path. So why not tackle something so urgent like (chronic) back pain?
You can. And together we will. Follow us in this article for a walkthrough about how and why you should tackle that back pain in 2022.
Save your health and body together with us. Let’s go:
Identify your common stressors at your workplace
Taking a critical look at your workspace is the first step of identifying and solving your personal stressors that create or contribute to the experienced pain/pressure.
For example: Your monitor, make sure your monitor is at a comfortable height where you do not put too much strain on your neck during the day. Looking too much up or down or in an uncomfortable position looking left or right puts strain on your neck which has to carry your head during the whole day in this position.
Solution: Adjust your monitor height accordingly and make sure everything is within arms reach when working. You can adjust your monitor height as easy as taking a few books and placing your monitor on them, it is crucial that the monitor is comfortably on eye sight level.
Don’t fancy the college student solution of putting your monitor on a stack of books you found lying around? We got you.
There are many nice monitor mounts and arms you can use which look esthetically much more pleasing for your office set up. Some monitors have the function themselves to change up the height to your preferred level by raising them up and down.
Fun fact: A human head weighs on average 5 kg, we know wow.
Invest in a proper ergonomic office chair. No we mean it, you really should
Well, the fact of the matter is: you’re still going to be sitting most of the day. And yes with Captain Obvious looking over our shoulder, we cannot stress enough how important a proper ergonomic chair is.
Your chair that you sit on basically is cushioning your frail skeleton during the whole day. the more reason there is to pick a proper one with high quality padding and which promotes a correct posture when sitting on it.
So these are the main characteristics you should look for:
Adjustable height: One of the most important things for a correct posture while sitting is to make sure your elbows are sitting in a comfortable angle with your desk. This is essential for stimulating a good posture and hinting your back to stay in the correct form.
Adjustable backrest: When picking a chair one often overlooks if there is enough seat depth. For stimulating proper posture to avoid back pain it is recommended to have 5-10 cm between your calves and the front of the chair. Thus why there should be enough depth on the seat for you to be able to sit according to the above guideline.
Adjustable armrests: We definitely recommend you to purchase and make use of a chair that has adjustable armrests. It is important that your chair’s armrests slightly lift your shoulders so it takes the tension off of your lower back, easing/preventing potential pain in that area.
Lower back support: Definitely pick an office chair with an adjustable backrest and lower back support. Lumbar support is crucial in stimulating the backs correct curvature and encourages a correct posture throughout the day. If one does not have a chair with back support a fast and easy trick would be to properly place a small pillow for support behind your back during sitting.
Enable rotation: A relatively often overlooked feature. We emphasize that it is important for your back to be able to just rotate your chair to grab something. Because when you can rotate you keep your back straight and the chair twists, instead of the other way around with a non-rotating chair.
Big Tip: In the above mentioned picture we can see the ergonomic Curve Desk Chair from Fitnest.eu, it is an example of an ergonomic adjustable quality chair. Because it is NEN-certified according to European standards the purchase of it can be used as a tax-write off by your employer.
A proper standing desk stimulates your most natural posture
Research has shown that using an ergonomic standing desk in the correct way significantly improves your posture, alleviates back pain and even stimulates blood circulation.
Standing straight is the more natural position for the human body compared to sitting believe it or not. By using a desk you switch between these positions and it has shown that it releases pressure from the lower back, neck and hips.
The increased blood circulation experienced while working when standing behind a standing desk increases oxygen to the brain and brain cell production in comparison to when seated the whole time.
The above shown standing desk from Fitnest.eu can be automatically put into higher positions to stimulate the above mentioned and alleviate the pain in your back.
It might be a new experience standing behind your desk and it might need some getting used to. But we do it, and we swear by it!
We recommend you keep a tight schedule at the beginning of 1 hour of sitting to 30 minutes of standing. Once it is done structurally one can certainly notice the benefits after an extended period of use and remember discipline is key! We truly recommend it to all professionals across the world.
A standing desk in combination with the above mentioned products can definitely change your posture and back aches for the better for good! Take care of your health, you will need it in the long run!
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