The majority of so-called white collar workers spend entire office day behind the desk. While many of us realize that lack of physical activity is one of the leading causes of premature death, and seek to spend the remaining part of the day actively, we do very little to prevent bad posture while sitting, what negatively impacts your osseous system, lungs, heart and blood vessels. In other words, it leads to a dysfunction of your body. By this article we will convince you, that, with a little effort, you can fix your bad posture habits. Check out what you are doing wrong to avoid the pain and overload!
- Tuck your legs under the chair – when you do this, you pull your pelvis up on the edge of the chair. Anterior pelvic tilt flows down the lumbar lordosis. It is harder for us to maintain a vertical position what overloads your spine and causes the pain.
- Too far distance to the monitor – the monitor should be at a comfortable horizontal distance, as this helps prevent possible health effects such as excessive fatigue. neck and back pain (and of course an eye strain). Lifting the chin forward leads to spine overload. It is not only a painful experience but in long term but, in long term, it may cause a discopathy.
- You lean back – when the surface of your chair is unsupportive or the seat is too long, you tend to lean back, and your spine forms letter “C”. It distorts the physiological curvature of the spine, causing it overload, pain and degenerative changes.
- Incorrect monitor height – A screen that is too high or too low will cause you to strain your head, neck, shoulders, and your back. Both conditions overwhelm the cervical spine. This can cause pain, tingling and numbness in hands, dizziness and headaches.
- Placing your wrists on the desk – continuous wrist bending causes pressure on the structures of so-called wrist tunnel i.e. on blood vessels and nerves. The constant overload of these structures impacts on your blood flow and on a neural conduction, what, in the long term, may lead to a “Carpal tunnel syndrome”.
- Sitting on one leg – this posture causes an asymmetrical position of your pelvis and spine. It is not only a painful experience, but it also causes (or exacerbate, if already existing ) side curvature of the spine, i.e. scoliosis, or discopathy. In addition, you disturb the flow of the blood and lymph in the affected leg.
- You keep everything at arm’s length – when you keep all important things on your desk, and even ride on your chair to grab some documents from the cabinet, you barely get up… Long sedentary position overloads the entire spine, causes muscle stiffness and slows heart rate and blood flow.
- Crossing your legs – by sitting with the legs crossed you press on the back of the knee, where the blood vessels and nerves are. Prolonged pressure can develop varicose veins, cause leg numbness and calf contractions.
- Not wearing glasses (when it’s necessary) – if you have some eye defect and you do not wear glasses or contact lenses, you will not see the screen properly. You need to lift the chin towards, what causes the same damages as the incorrect monitor distance.
- You use a non-ergonomic chair – last but not least, a poorly-designed chair and desk is obviously forcing us to sit incorrectly. A good chair allows you to adjust seat height range, backrest, seat depth and stability, hence its selection is a critical step in preventing health problems. Although well-designed chair allows sit in a balanced position. Buying an ergonomic chair is a good beginning but it may not bring the benefits expected… unless you follow all the above.
