With so many people working from home these days to maintain social distancing from their co-workers, many develop muscle aches. Improving posture and ergonomics is a proactive way to take care of your body while working remotely. A common cause of this is:working on a desktop, laptop or mobile phone with a bad posture or a bad ergonomic set-up. To reduce stress on the body, we offer the following suggestions for working from home:
- You may need a quiet room to work or specialized software that you keep at your desk. Before everything else, identify a few places in your home where you can work and change body position and location throughout the day. Find ways to work standing, walking and sitting.
- Sit in a good chair – even a wooden one – on your sit bones (the bones at the very bottom of your pelvis), with an arch in your low back. Avoid the sluggishness, that half-sitting, half-reclining position so often used for lounging on the couch or in bed. If you want to work in bed or on the couch, sit up straight on your sitting bone.
- While sitting, place both feet on the floor at a right angle to your knees. Avoid crossed legs or tucked feet. Good posture means that the bones support the weight of your body. Aligning your posture allows your bones to do the work, not your muscles. This prevents muscle spasms, pain and inflammation. It can even prevent nerve pain and headaches.
- Use a keyboard tray and pull it over your lap. If you're using a laptop, use it only as a screen and place it at eye level with a stand or a stack of books. Purchase a remote keyboard to use with a keyboard tray.
- To avoid neck pain, keep your eye at eye level, whether you're using a laptop or monitor. Place books under your monitor to raise it or use a stand if necessary.
- Shoulders should be dropped and relaxed, with elbows hanging down, at the center of the hemline of your shirt. Do not use the keyboard with your elbows reaching forward. This can cause isometric spasms in your neck and/or shoulders and arms, leading to pain and inflammation.
- Keep your sternum lifted. This will keep your torso, head and shoulders upright. Lowering the sternum pulls the head forward and compresses your torso.
- Avoid forward head position. Keep your head upright, in line with your torso. Keep your screen at eye level. For every inch your head is forward, it increases the weight on your upper back and neck by 10 pounds! If you are using a cell phone, rest your elbows on your chest and keep the phone at eye level.
- Use a phone headset so you don't have to bend your neck when using the phone.
- Remember to take several breaks throughout the day, if only to empty the dishwasher, do some laundry, climb the stairs a few times, do yoga or some abdominal exercises, dance or to take a short walk.
Don't be surprised if you catch yourself in bad posture several times a day. As your habits change, you'll be able to spot and correct bad posture right away. If you find yourself collapsing, just chuckle and think, 'I can fix this.' And fix it!
