It
might be due to the darkness that accompanies shorter days, or the invasion of
warmer, comfier clothes into the winter workplace, but now is the time when
long hours, slouching, slumping, and straining dominate the office.
The
modern-day office is built around sitting, so that you can conduct
business, make phone calls, send e-mails and faxes, and even participate in
video conferences, without ever leaving your chair.
The
average American office worker can sit for 13 to 15 hours a day.
According
to Dr. James Levine, co-director of the Mayo Clinic and the Arizona State
University Obesity Initiative, there are at least 24 different chronic diseases
and conditions associated with excessive sitting.
As
he wrote in Scientific American:
“Sitting for long periods is bad because the human body was not designed to be idle. I have worked in obesity research for several decades, and my laboratory has studied the effect of sedentary lifestyles at the molecular level all the way up to office design.
“Sitting for long periods is bad because the human body was not designed to be idle. I have worked in obesity research for several decades, and my laboratory has studied the effect of sedentary lifestyles at the molecular level all the way up to office design.
Lack
of movement slows metabolism, reducing the amount of food that is converted to
energy and thus promoting fat accumulation, obesity, and the litany of
ills—heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and more—that come with being
overweight. Sitting is bad for lean people, too.
For
instance, sitting in your chair after a meal leads to high blood sugar spikes,
whereas getting up after you eat can cut those spikes in half.”
Here
are five ways to make sure your computer desk doesn’t become the death of you.
1. Give your monitor a second look.
If
your screen is planted directly on your desktop, it’s time to raise your
computer’s display.
According
to Dr. Jim Sheedy, director of the Vision Performance Institute at Pacific
University, the top of your the screen should be level with your eyes.
The
ideas is to get the eyes looking down about 10 degrees. If it’s any lower or
higher, computer users will adapt to it by moving their head. If your screen is
to low, your head points down, causing neck and back aches. High displays,
meanwhile, contribute to dry eye syndrome.
2. Poor posture.
Poor
posture is something that every office-based employee should consider
throughout their day.
Most
people sitting at a computer get drawn into the screen, which means they crane
their necks forward. This imbalance puts strain on the neck and spine.
It’s
like holding a bowling ball with one hand, says Dr. James Bowman, of Portland,
Oregon based Solutions Chiropractic. If your arm is vertical underneath, it
puts less strain on the muscles, but lean that ball forward and your muscles
have to compensate to keep it aloft. Sitting at a desk, that bowling ball is
actually our head, so Bowman recommends chin retractions, or making a double
chin, to keep the neck and spine lined up underneath.
“It’s
probably the most effective single exercise you can do for the upper back and
neck,” he says.
3. Stand up.
The
modern workplace was built around the concept of sitting, but humans’ ability
to stand goes back millions of years. Buck the trend of the office with a
standing desk or, if that’s too radical, a sit-stand workstation.
According to research out of the University
of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic, sit-stand workstations helped workers replace
25 percent of their sitting time with standing up, which can increase their
sense of well being and decreased their fatigue and appetite.
The
Jarvis Desk can go from 26-inches to 51-inches at the
push of a button, lifting up to 350 pounds of whatever’s on your desk,
including multiple monitors.
“I
definitely feel healthier standing while working as it causes me to be more
focused on my posture and ‘hold’ myself better in terms of my stomach and
shoulders especially,” says Dan McCormack, who uses a Jarvis Desk at his home
office in Austin, Texas.
4. Move it.
Why
stand when you could walk? Many offices around the country are getting wise to
treadmill desks, which can help workers burn 100 calories more per hour over
sitting, according to a study by the National Institutes of
Health.
“The
most important thing is to switch it up and work in different positions
throughout the day,” says Emily Couey, Eventbrite’s vice president of people.
The
online event ticketing service offers multiple workspace options including
traditional sitting desks, standing desks, and treadmill desks, which Couey
says “people love, because it allows them move while they work — especially
those with fitness trackers counting their daily steps.”
5. Pace yourself.
All
work and no play makes Jack a bad employee. Whether it’s on their phone in the
bathroom or on the computer in their cube, everyone takes sanity breaks to
check their Facebook or read some news.
The
Pomodoro Technique even encourages this kind of behavior
by breaking tasks into “pomodoros,” intense 25 minute work bursts, followed by
five-minute breaks.
Named
because they can be measured using little tomato-shaped kitchen timers
(Pomodoro is Italian for tomato), this method lets people work intensely and
stave off distraction, yet rewards them with time to goof off, as well.
If
you don’t have a tomato timer handy, there are a lot of apps online to keep
track of your sessions. But Francesco Cirillo, the technique’s founder,
recommends using the real deal.
“You
have to be able to actually wind it up,” Cirillo says in his book, The
Comodoro Technique. “The act of winding up the Pomodoro is a declaration of
your determination to start working on the activity at hand.”
If
you’re still sitting down while reading this, now’s your chance, stand up! As
Dr. Levine said: “We live amid a sea of killer chairs: adjustable, swivel,
recliner, wing, club, chaise lounge, sofa, arm, four-legged, three-legged,
wood, leather, plastic, car, plane, train, dining and bar. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that you do not have to use them.”
Source: organichealth.co
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