Posture Awareness For Working From Home

Now that we are adjusted to the idea of working from home, many of us still may not have a proper work station at home compared to what we had at our offices.  With that in mind, I want to offer a few thoughts on how to avoid those dreaded neck kinks and lower back pain that come with the territory.  I am a huge believer in keeping it simple.  When you mentally overload someone with a list of things to do—  exercises, posture reminders or basically any ‘to do list’ in life, they do not get done because there is too much to absorb all at once.  I like to pick a few key points and stick with them when it comes to posture and working from home:

Do Not

-Sit or lie on the bed, slouched over, looking at the computer on the bed in front of you.

-Sit on the couch bent over looking at the computer that is sitting on the coffee table well below eye-level.

-Sit longer than 1 hour (30-45 minutes is ideal, but I understand, we all have work that needs to get done).

-Crane your neck forward to look down at the computer, or sit so you have to twist your body to see the screen.

Do:

-Get up! If you are on a conference call, writing an email from your phone, stand up! Your body likes to move so you don’t get stiff.  Your neck and back will thank you.

-Drink water! If for no other reason it will make you have to get up from your chair to use the bathroom.

-Sit in a chair with armrests.  Resting your arms will take strain off of your shoulders and neck. While seated on a chair, make sure that you can put your feet flat on the floor, hips slightly higher on the seat than your knees.

-Setup your work space so you are looking directly at the computer in front of you so that you don’t have to twist your body or look down to see the screen.  Even turning your head slightly seems like no big deal, but over the course of hours through the day it becomes an issue.

**In the ‘correct seated posture’ pictured below, the desk is too high and the arms are not resting on the armrests.  Home setups are hardly perfect.  The best thing you can do is to make things as close to ideal as possible.  Get up frequently.