Back hurting?
1st March 2019
I have joined the many working remotely from home for my office job. This might be the new normal for a while, so it is important to take care of your posture.
Adjust your work station.
It doesn’t matter where you work at home. You might have a desk like me or you might work at your dining table. It is important that you adjust your sitting height to suit. You should be able to have your arms bent 90 degrees at the elbows and your forearms resting on a surface. If the table is too tall, put a pillow on your chair.
If your table is too low, you can go two ways: put blocks under the table legs to adjust or get a lower chair. The lower chair only works, if you still can sit comfortably; tall people cannot do this.
Check that the screen is at eye height. If not adjust the stand or put a box or a thick book under. If you work from a laptop, you should preferably get a separate keyboard, so that you can lift the screen to the eye height. It might not feel initially too bad to type on a laptop, but long time usage causes a ‘text neck’ – neck that is sitting forward and stacking the vertebrae undesirably. It excerts a strong pull on your neck muscles and other tissues in the area.
Check your feet. Are your knees bent 90 degrees with your feet on the floor? The knees should not hang, nor stick up. If you don’t reach the floor (like me, shorty legs) you need to get something under them. I have a children’s bathroom step. Anything will do; books, pillows, husband (just joking!)…If your knees are sticking up, you need to adjust your sitting height up. This might mean that you have to also adjust the table height.
Move!
You can sit in the perfect posture, but if you don’t move, you will start to ache at some point. You can get up and move, rotate your arms and neck or just wiggle. Wiggling is good for your lower back. Don’t forget to make yuse of your alloted once a day exercise outside. It helps both physically and mentally under the strained circumstances. Brisk walk is all that is needed unless you are used to do something else.
Take care, stay safe and hopefully see you soon!
