Your Desk and Chair Are Killing You!

I remember working in an office years ago and the coolest thing was who got the best office chair. We didn't think too much about the height of the desk or even the width of the desk for all that mattered. I wanted a chair with low back support, adjustments for leg height and neck height, and most importantly, softness. Oh yeah, one year I got a heating pad to improve the chair. No matter what I did, my back seem to never stop hurting. My neck and shoulders were always tired. One year my company brought in an ergonomic specialist that was going to fix all those problems. We move our monitors up to a different height and again, we bought new chairs. The truth of the matter is, the ergonomics has little to do with how you feel. Yes, if you are sitting on a wooden chair all day,that would hurt, but if you understand your body's needs, the chair is, sort of, irrelevant. These ideas can apply to people sitting in cars, retirees sitting in a recliner, or anyone that sits for a living.

The human body was designed to move all the time, regardless of your age. Watch a vibrant older person when they retire. If they go home and relax in the recliner with the idea they will do nothing, their boy will fail quicker then the older person that is on a mission in retirement. This same thing will happen to you at any age. NO matter your age, if you sit for long periods of time your body is burning less calories which means weight gain, muscles are not moving and they will atrophy, and not moving reduces cardiovascular activity which is bad for your heart. In a seated position the the front of the neck, chest, abs, quads, and inner thighs are all shortened which will lead to low back stiffness and neck pain. As we stare at the computer our heads will lean forward which will lead to neck pain, but also TMJ issues. Rotating muscles in your hips will spasm from sitting and also the weight of your body pressed against your pelvis which can lead Restless leg Syndrome. Finally, leaning against your desk on your forearms for long periods of time will reduce blood flow and cause these muscles to spasm leading to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

On top of that, most desk workers eat at their desk, and usually it is not healthy food and drink, which leads to obesity because we are taking extreme amounts of calories and no movement to burn them. This can lead to heart disease, diabetes, and neuropathy as the inflammation in your body will rise. Sitting can lead to the shortening of the chest muscles which can affect your ability to breathe deep.As you can see sitting for long periods of time is not a pretty picture over time. However there are things you can do, with the help of your employer to improve your health and save your employer time and money.

Let's begin with not sitting for long periods of time. This does not mean if you get a standing desk problem solved, because a standing desk can create problems from standing in one spot too long as well. I suggest to my clients that they get up and move at least every 45 minutes. Go to the bathroom, get some water or tea, or do some light stretching. Placing a pillow or pad behind your low back will not help you long term. That pillow will lead to neck pain because the pillow causes you to lean farther back so your shoulders will touch the back for support. Placing a box under your feet is a temporary fix as it will shorten the quads even more, which will lead to more back pain. Take a full hour for lunch and get out and move. Eat a healthy lunch and be mindful that if you eat 1000 calories at lunch, you need to burn 1000 calories before dinner. Plus, the foods that add up to 1000 calories are also causing inflammation and no amount of movement can clear all of that away. So it is not how much you eat, but what you eat too.

The chair itself needs to fit you. Car seats are the worst. We are all different sizes and even if we are the same height, on person's legs are longer or shorter than the next. So how can a single chair fit everybody? It can't! When you sit in a chair with your hips fully against the back of the chair, the end of the seat should hit right behind your knees. Too long and your feet can't touch the floor, leg cramps. Too short and your knees are too high, back pain. I have seen people downsize from and SUV or minivan to a car and develop back pain. The same can happen with a chair. It may look awesome, but it can become a nightmare for you and your company. Light stretching is great to do throughout the day. Ever seen a dog or cat when they start to move, the first thing they do is stretch. Who is smarter, us or them? Stretching is more like eating then working out. If you eat breakfast at 8 am and don't eat for the rest of the day, at 8 pm you are hungry and you know why. You have used up your calories. Stretching works the same way. If get up and stretch for 15 minutes and don't stretch all day, by mid afternoon, you are as tight as when you woke up. Your muscles are just as emotional as they are physical. We get that if I am lifting heavy things, my muscles will get tight, however if you worry all day you can be equally as tired. Either way your muscles will get tight. We teach our clients how to stretch by holding for 3-5 seconds and repeating the stretch 8-10 times. It takes little time because we are not asking them to do a full routine each time, but 1 or 2 stretches at a time throughout their day. If employers would give their employees 3-5 minutes 3-4 times a day to do this, they would save more money in missed days and healthcare cost then the time paid for as the employees stretch.

The secret to keeping people at work and feeling well is a team effort. First the person must do the work because that person is the only one that can actually make the muscles relax. Secondly, the employer must give the employee the time and space to do the work. Stress from being overworked or under pressure to get things done the quickest can cost a company hundreds of hours of lost time which is money. You may get the job done but at a high cost in lost time and turnover. It is time we re-evaluate what we are doing and prepare our bodies like an athlete for the job we must do. It's funny, a sports teams pays a player millions of dollars a year and they get allowing the player to prepare properly. Yet most of us don't make millions of dollars a year and we are ask, and ask ourselves, to do a job without any preparations, physically or emotionally at all. Where is the logic in that?