Today¡¯s office environment can be as challenging physically as they are mentally; watch out for common pitfalls and plan to counteract them.
Many of us sit for at least 8 hours a day at a desk that¡¯s a third of our day, and ¨C for many of us ¨C more than half of our waking hours! Between the tensions that we collect in our bodies due to stress, the work environment itself can create conditions that are physically limiting. At the end of the day, many people suffer from stiff joints, aching back, numb legs, wrist pain, neck pain, and headaches. Consider that your average cubical provides no room for activity, and that typing and/or mousing all day stresses the hands, wrists and forearms. Consider also that many office chairs have fixed positions, and that they can promote poor posture, and that slumping over a desk creates weak back muscles and rounded shoulders. All of these factors contribute to spending over half your day in an environment that is bad for your body. To counteract these pressures, bring activity into your workspace and incorporate ergonomic tools and dynamic exercise equipment into tour daily life.
Make sure your desk is adjusted to the proper height.
Desk height is a vital aspect of workspace ergonomics, as proper keyboard, monitor and phone placement all depend on the height of your desk. If at all possible, determine the appropriate height for your sitting surface BEFORE assessing and adjusting your desk height. Your desk height should allow for comfortable and easy access to the various components of your workstation. Make sure you are neither hunched over nor straining yourself to perform your work activities. Remember, adjust your workspace to your needs; do not adjust your movements to your workspace.
Use a wobble board as a footrest.
Using a footrest is another important piece of the puzzle in maintaining good health in the workplace. The advantage of using an adjustable wobble board as a footrest is that it provides an elevated platform on which to rest the legs and alleviate pressure from the back of the leg. The mobility of the wobble board also helps to eliminate stiffness from the joints and muscles in our legs. The wobble board can be more than a footrest, too: stand on it while talking on the phone. This will add an active component to your day and also enhance your balance and proprioception.
Try a Power Web to strengthen your hands and relieve stiffness created by repetitive motions.
A Power Web is a very useful hand-strengthening tool that fits nicely into the work environment. This elastic resistance webbing takes up little space and can be used to strengthen and stretch the muscles of the forearm and hand. Use the Power Web every so often throughout your workday to get relief from the tension created by continuous typing and mousing. Keeping the hand and wrist strong and flexible can prevent the onset of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome as well as other repetitive strain disorders.
Use a ball as a chair.
The exercise ball, or Swiss ball, is a dynamic tool that can provide many health benefits when used as a chair. Envision your basic office chair as a cast, or a brace: it keeps your body static, so your core muscles ¨C which are the basis for your posture - become weakened. Moreover, this static sitting position does not allow you to maintain a good relationship with gravity, so that your body ¡°sinks¡± over time, causing you to slouch and sit in awkward positions to relieve the pressure on your spine. The ball as chair, though, is an active surface, and sitting actively leads to improved posture, core strength and body awareness. The dynamic motions created by sitting on a ball helps relieve the pressure of gravity, and the freedom of movement afforded by sitting on a ball allows your spine to find its optimal posture. You¡¯ll make minute adjustments to your position while you sit on the ball, and these help improve circulation, which helps keep inter-vertebral discs healthy. Moreover, the instability of the ball and the lack of a backrest encourage the use of stabilizer muscles in our core, and increased core strength translates to better posture.
Choose a ball chair based on height and quality.
If you are choosing to sit actively, it is important that you choose the right size ball and consider its durability in order to reap the most benefits. To determine the optimal ball size, sit on the ball and look for your thighs to be slightly above parallel with the ground. As you would imagine, taller people will need bigger exercise balls, while shorter people will need smaller ones. Also, make sure you can comfortably sit at your desk, without your thighs hitting the underside of the desk, and without having to raise your elbows too far above your rib cage or reach too far forward to write or type comfortably. To ensure safety, use a burst-rated ball.
Adjust monitor position to avoid eye strain, neck strain and headaches.
Proper monitor placement will benefit you tremendously by helping to avoid headaches caused by the strain on your eyes and neck. To find the correct monitor height, gaze forward with a neutral position of the head. Relax your eyes. The middle of your monitor should line up with your line of sight, so that your eyes are at the same height as the top of the monitor. Avoid having your head bent forward or backward, as this is what causes your eyes and neck to strain. If your monitor is not at the right ergonomic height, office supply stores stock many tools that allow you to adjust the height of your monitor.
Don¡¯t think of your desk as a flat surface: adjust placement of reference material to be easily visible without neck or eye strain.
Books, papers, and other reference materials that you consult in the course of your work should also be arranged in such a way as to minimize eye and neck strain. Group items close to one another that you use at the same time, such that materials you use while looking at your monitor are beside your monitor, and so that information you might need while talking on the telephone is near to the telephone. Also consider placing materials at different heights, so that you have a ¡°bird¡¯s eye view¡± of your information. There are different stands and monitor clips that can be used to fit your needs.
Use a book stand for reading without neck strain.
Reading is an integral part of our day and should be done in a manner that allows comfort. The use of a book stand allows us to tilt the book forward so that we are not straining our necks. This is very important when we are reading for prolonged periods of time. This simple and effective tool can help create a more enjoyable experience at your desk.
Ergonomics is the science of designing the job to fit the worker, rather than physically forcing the worker¡¯s body to fit the job.
Ergonomics deals with the interaction of technological and work situations with the human being. Ergonomists use anatomy, physiology and psychology to identify the most productive use of human capabilities, and to then maintain human health and well-being by making sure that jobs fit the person or people who perform them. This requires taking into account differences such as size, strength and ability to handle information for a wide range of users and then designing tasks, work spaces and tools around those differences. The benefits of ergonomics include improved efficiency, quality and job satisfaction, as well as a reduced risk of fatigue, strain and job-related injury.?
Set your keyboard up correctly to reduce your chance of repetitive stress injury, neck pain and chronic tension in the forearms.
Repetitive use injuries, including Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, have become the scourge of office workers, students and others who spend hours working on a keyboard or laptop. If the wrist rests on the desk or the edge of the keyboard, pain may result. If the wrist is over-extended or over-flexed, there will be increased strain on the muscles, tendons and joints of the wrists. To prevent such strain, it is vital to maintain an adequate wrist position whenever you are working at a keyboard. A neutral wrist position is ideal, and that means maintaining a straight line from your forearm through your wrist and into your hand; let your fingers do the work! To help you maintain the correct position and protect your wrists, try a cushioned wrist support at the base of the keyboard. If you have shorter fingers, you may find it more comfortable to elevate the back of the keyboard while typing. If your fingers are long, try elevating the front of the keyboard while typing.
Use a headset while talking on the telephone.
Many jobs require people to talk on the phone as they are performing various tasks, such as writing or typing. This typically leads to poor posture as the phone is being held between the head and neck. Surely, you know the literal pain in your neck that hours on the phone can cause! Using a head set with your phone will keep your hands free while still allowing you to practice healthy spinal alignment and prevent neck pain and strain.
Use other active sitting devices if an exercise ball is not the right ¡°chair¡± for you.
If circumstances do not permit the use of an exercise ball (for example, if your desk is too low or high to accommodate a ball that is the correct size for you), there are other options which allow for an active sitting surface. Some alternatives to using a ball chair are the Swopper and the Active Disc. Both of these products allow mobility and promote good posture. The Swopper is a stool-like piece of equipment that provides all of the same benefits of the ball due to its tilting and rocking motions. The Fitterfirst Active Disc is a cushion that you can put on a standard desk chair, allowing for movement through your hips so that your body to find its optimal posture in conjunction with gravity.