In reality, it's not the folks you work with who are getting you down�"they're tolerable, mostly, although there is that one guy in accounting. Where do they find these people?
It's not even your boss, who, if he knew even half as much as you do, WOULD be a shoo-in for Executive of the Year.
No, the biggest pain in your neck is actually located a bit lower. And it's really what's making working where you do seem a lot worse than it actually is.
Face it. It's your aching back that's sucking the joy out of your nine-to-five existence and making you feel 10 years older to boot.
Sure, you've learned to tolerate the bad coffee, pointless meetings, and lame jokes in the course of your day. But you just can't tough it out when it comes to back pain, which can range from dull, nagging aches to those unexpected twinges that feel like you've been hit with a taser gun.
If it's any consolation, you're not alone. More than 31 million Americans have low back pain at any given time. The bad news about back pain is that it not only lives with you all day at the office but it also comes home with you at night. It may even dog your weekends.
How do you develop pain?
If you are experiencing back pain at the office, you may think that it is coming from all the sitting, standing, and lifting that you have to do. And, indirectly, it does. But it is actually more about how the body has to adapt to all the sitting, standing, and lifting than the activity itself. Let's take sitting as an example.
Because of the amount of time you spend sitting, your body must gradually adapt itself to that position. This happens in a number of ways. The first thing it must adapt to is how the weight goes through your hips and pelvis. Then, there is the way you sit�"upright, slouching, or something in between. Most importantly, it's what happens to the muscles while you're sitting. For example, your hip flexors will get tight from being in a shortened position and your butt will get weak and flabby from being in a relaxed state.
That simple combination of tight hip flexors and weak glutes is called a "muscle imbalance." The result of these muscle imbalances will be postural dysfunctions of your pelvis and spine. These imbalances send both your spine and pelvis into abnormal positions, the combination of which can be devastating to a person with a healthy back and catastrophic for a person suffering from any form of back pain.
What can you do about it?
What you must also understand is that your imbalances are the result of what you do in your everyday life�"your workouts, sitting, the activities of your job, and your own personal habits. I'm not going to tell you to stop going to work. But what if you changed the way you present yourself at your desk?
•Instead of sitting at your desk, try kneeling. I kneel at least 30 percent of the time I spend at my desk. I have a small foam pad that puts me just high enough to type and see the monitor. •I sit on a therapy ball�"and guess what? I don't sit still like my momma told me to. I move my hips in every direction, which means I'm working on my core balance all day long.
Action steps to take
Because you have to work and because the quality of your life depends on your career, you need to be able to make the most of your situation. Let me give you just a few tips to help you through the day:
Sitting When I sit, I sit with my legs in all different positions�"sometimes bent, sometimes behind me, other times stretched out in front or even to the side of me, keep the legs moving.
Every 10 minutes or so, I will work my body in some way�"and, yes, that includes walking away from my desk. But more than that, I make it a habit to stand up when the phone rings. I also stand when I have to read something or when I'm rearranging the stack of stuff on my desk for greater productivity.
Standing If your job requires you to stand all day long, be sure you have quality footwear and a neutral shoe insert. Our body mechanics start when our feet hit the ground. It is best if your feet are in the most neutral position possible.
One negative body pattern that many people fall into is to continually shift their weight from one foot to the other. The problem with this is that most people find eventually decide that one leg will be more comfortable than the other, and then that leg will get most of the weight most of the time. This will wreak havoc on the pelvis and spine. Better to put equal on each foot as much as you can, and learn to correct when you catch yourself shifting your weight or leaning on one leg too much.
Lifting A third obstacle on the job can be situations where you have to lift anything over 10 pounds repeatedly. Again, it's not the activity itself that puts you in jeopardy; it's your body's inability to tolerate the stress of the weight. In other words, you should be able to lift anything you want to and not have any difficulty doing it. The problem occurs when your body is suffering from the muscle imbalances and postural dysfunctions that we talked about earlier�"and you don't even know it.
So, when you lift that object and you get injured, think of it as the straw that broke the camels' back. Your body was already in a compromised state, and it just needed that last bit of stress to send you in to a painful condition.
Stress It's an unavoidable fact of life at the office, and it can also play a role by causing your muscles to tense up, which makes you more prone to injury. Stress also lowers your tolerance for pain. In some cases, minimizing stress on the job can be a daunting task, but deep-breathing exercises, walking around the block, or even talking about your frustrations with a trusted friend can help.
In closing, I want to leave you with this message: Even though the workplace can be a hazard to your health, if you do find yourself having back pain, remember that your thoughts and your beliefs about your situation will have a direct impact on your ability to recover and how fast you recover. That's why it's critical to learn all you can about your condition and take action as soon as you can…
Today’s problem with office chairs some say, is that we have been forced into a “table and chair" culture where many of our daily tasks take place in this right angled and seated position. This sort of sitting can force the body into a slumped or “c" shaped position putting uneven pressure on the vertebral disks and muscles of the lower back. With time and being seated in your office chair over long periods each day, the spine can become deformed and erode disks, making it hard to retrain to the proper posture for sitting.
In America, back pain is epidemic. Costing us billions each year, aside from the common cold, back pain or injury from workplace conditions or office chairs of some sort keeps more employees away from work than any other single cause. Evidence from many different cultures shows us that seating and the practice of sitting has been associated with numerous issues. Back pain of all sorts, fatigue, varicose veins, muscle stress, problems with the diaphragm, digestion and body development have all been associated with improper positioning when seated for long periods of time.
People in some third world countries never use chairs but instead sit on the ground or floor. This type of sitting, known as ‘autonomous’ sitting, or sitting upright without back support is not easy. Sitting up straight has to be forced, and is hard to maintain and train the body to habitually remember to do. .
Trying to stay seated correctly in your standard task office chair can be challenging. The solution lies in re-educating your own body to move the way it was designed to move. Simply by using your body properly, the ‘autonomous’ sitting position can be regained and retrained into your memory with little effort. .
Tips for Practicing Good Posture for Your Office Chair
# Practice sitting without back support, start with a few minutes and gradually work up. # Try to use the furniture in your house and office which allows you to be seated without back support. # When you feel tired and begin to slump, lay down a few minutes to regain energy. # Replace sitting when ever possible. Reclining is one of the best positions for reading or speaking on the phone. # Take a break from sitting at least once an hour.
Amy Pedersen works in the ergonomics and office furniture industry and is an expert in her field. Please visit her ergonomic websites to see more information and details on executive, mesh, leather, task and ergonomic office chairs and furniture to maintain your workstation. Offering a wide variety of executive and task office chairs with an online sales catalog as well as providing ergonomic information on proper chair positioning and seating at the workplace.
Both Jesse Cannone & Amy Pedersen are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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