Does your quarantine day look like this: 9am Zoom call, 10am Google Meet, 11am Skype, 12pm grab a bite from the fridge and check on the kids, 12:30 return phone calls, 1pm More Zoom, 3pm Microsoft Team Meeting, 5pm happy hour on House Party!
If so, are you feeling it yet? Neck/upper back pain from hunching over your screen all day long? Have you thrown your back out?
It’s a strange time in history. The business world is “pivoting” to virtual. But despite the positive fact that business can go on, our bodies are suffering. Even our kids are searching for meeting links all day long as they video meet for everything from school, to ballet class, to art instruction.
The posture problem from all this screen time, is an epidemic of mass proportions. At your work place, you may rock in your chair in meetings, get up to chat in someone’s office, take a standing break at your ergonomic work station or walk to lunch with a co-worker. There used to be more movement in your day. Now we are sitting (or maybe standing) in front of screens… all…. day…. long:
This “new normal” will require a little more effort to combat this terrifying posture problem. Here are 3 quick and easy practical tips you can implement right now:
Grab a active sitting chair:
I am a big fan of moving throughout your work day. Immobility is what causes the pain the body so if you’re able to get more movement at your home desk/ counter, get it going now. You can try sitting on a ball chair, or my favorite ergo ergo chair.
Get a portable raise screen for your laptop
If your company gave you a laptop to work from home, run quickly to your favorite online site and get a raised screen for work station. Despite the convenience of laptops, the keyboard/screen set up is always going to force your head to look “down” lower than your neck can handle. This is fine for short term work, but for hours of screen calls, your neck is going to suffer.
Do some quick desk exercises throughout your day
No matter how “ergonomic” your home workstation is, it will not make up for the hours of immobility while you type and stare at the screen. Your before work or after work exercise routines will help, but nothing beats movement THROUGHOUT your day. Do a “chest stretch” at 10am, some “pelvic tilts” at 12pm, a couple of “sit to stands” at 3pm and then finish with a “calf lean” at 5pm. Need help making sure you get this done? Check out our VerticAlign desk posture coaching program that will be sure to keep you moving.
This is some pretty serious stuff. Studies how that back/neck pain will affect 80% off of desk workers at some point in their lives and can decrease productivity by 36%. The last thing you need during this stressful quarantine time is a backache to slow you down. Beat the statistics, implements these tips, and get yourself “VerticAligned”.
Originally posted on www.VerticAlign.com
Written by: Zeena Dhalla