Colin McDonald

Office Chairs and Back Pain Risks

Think you have bad posture at work? Follow these simple tips to help prevent muscle strain and back pain

The nature of office work means that for long periods of time you will be sitting at a desk. This alone can bring about lower back pain and can worsen the symptoms of existing back / neck problems. This is due to the increased stress your muscles just by being subjected to this static position.

This can have adverse affects on you back, neck, legs, shoulders and arms. By following some of the following tips you will be taking a step closer to correcting the problem to help you avoid unnecessary muscle strains.

Sitting in chair for prolonged periods causes most people to slouch down. It is this slouching that is the cause of muscle strain. Muscle and ligaments can be overstretched and cause strain and damage. The longer this goes on the more likely you are to develop some kind of back pain.

There are a few tips on setting up you office chair and desk that will help you stay healthy.  Some of these may feel a little uncomfortable at first, once you to use to the new seating arrangement you will find that it is very comfortable.

Sit in your chair and then move as close to your desk as you can comfortably do so. Ideally you are looking to achieve a right angle with your elbows. So reach for your keyboard and then make the height adjustments with your chair to ensure that this ideal angle is as close to as possible.

Now that you have adjusted your height, you want to make sure that this is not too high. You should be able to easily slide your fingers over your thighs without hitting your desk. If you find that you cannot make the adjust without getting you thigh too close to your desk then you will have to ask your employer to consider providing you with an adjustable desk.

Push you bottom up against the back of your chair and try to ensure that your calf muscles are touching you chair. Ideally you want to have roughly 10cm clearance. If you don’t have any clearance then you need to add a lumber support to your chair which will push you forward to the correct position.

Now you need to check your eye level. You want to ensure that the when facing forward your monitor is at the centre of your vision. Adjust the height of your monitor accordingly if it is not in the natural centre of your vision. Having the wrong viewing angle can cause neck strain so you want to get this right.

Finally if you have a chair with armrests then you need to ensure that they work as they are intended to. An armrest should slightly raise you arms so that the strain is taken away from your shoulders. Ideally you should frequently use your armrest so that the shoulders can be rested.

Article Tags: Back Pain

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