3-Tip Friday: Improving your Working Posture, The Benefits of Standing Desks and Purifying Indoor Air
Work Ergonomics: How to Optimize your Workspace for Healthier and More Productive Working
- The Optimal Posture for Sitting at your Work-Desk
- Standing Desk: Upgrade your Health while Working
- Purifying indoor air: easy methods including depolluting house plants
- Conclusion
Millions of people now have the freedom to work from home. This means that many people find themselves struggling with back pain and tiredness caused by poor workspace ergonomics, as well as the general health-compromising effects of poor indoor air quality. Our homes are rarely designed to be offices… but no worries, because I got your back! (quite literally this time). This week’s tips include important criteria which if followed, will help protect your back, posture, and airways, and make you feel better by doing so.
1. The Optimal Posture for Sitting at your Work-Desk
‘Neutral postures’ are postures in which the body is in an aligned and balanced state. These postures minimize the stress applied to muscles, tendons, nerves, and bones and allow for maximal control and force production. The back is in its neutral posture when it resides in an S-shape, while the arms and legs are in their neutral postures when either stretched out or in a 90-degree angle.
The secret of sitting to reduce pressure on the lumbar discs – in other words, the lower back – is to lengthen the spine into its neutral, S-shaped posture, as when standing. This can be achieved by sitting upright and leaning slightly backward (100-105 degree angle) for the pelvis to rotate forwards and the S-shape to occur.
To optimize the natural balance of your spine even more, occasionally adjust the angle of your chair while working, as this simulates the body’s need for regular movement. You can do this by leaning your backrest slightly further backward (100-110 degree angle) while tilting your seat a little forwards.
Sit well back into your chair to maintain contact with the backrest: this will stabilize the lower part of your spine, which in turn will control the balance in the upper part of your spine.
2. Standing Desk: Upgrade your Health while Working
What’s even better than alternating the angle position of your seat, is to stand behind your desk. The use of a standing desk actually improves lymphatic and blood circulation, decreases blood pressure, and increases the number of calories you burn. Researchers even concluded that increasing the amount of time standing or walking during the day is more effective than one hour of exercise per day to reduce the negative health effects associated with physical inactivity – in other words, working seated behind your desk all day. Now’s the time to get yourself a standing desk, and maybe even hover it over your home treadmill – if you have one -to turn it into a waking desk.
When it comes to the posture you should adopt behind a standing desk, it all comes down to the positioning of your upper body relative to your screen, keeping in mind its ‘neutral postures’:
To avoid leg or foot discomfort, don’t overextend your knees (keep them slightly bent) and shift your weight from the left to right foot regularly.
3. Purifying indoor air: easy methods including depolluting house plants
We spend as much as 90% of our time indoors and breathe in as much as 12-15 kg (26-33 lbs) of indoor air per day. According to research, indoor air can be 2-5 times (and occasionally even 100 times) more polluted than fresh outdoor air, thus predisposing us to disease. This makes improving indoor air quality a top priority for our health.
A few ways to purify your indoor air:
- Ventilate your home / office frequently
- Wipe off dust regularly (to avoid inhaling it as it can be toxic to the body)
- Open your curtains to let sunlight in (the ultraviolet light from sun rays inactivates pathogens and microbes, this is the only way to kill airborne bacteria and viruses in your home)
- Purchase an air purifier (either filters the air by absorbing the pollutants, or neutralizes the pollutants in the air by emitting negatively charged ions)
- Use plants that purify indoor air
Number 1-4 of these strategies are fairly straight-forward, so let’s take a deeper look at strategy 5. Using house plants improves air quality by increasing air humidity, turning carbon dioxide into oxygen and releasing negative ions into the air, which neutralize air pollutants. According to NASA, the following plants are optimal for purifying indoor air: snake plant (a.k.a. mother-in-law’s tongue), bamboo palm, gerbera daisy, marginata (a.k.a. dragon tree), spider plant, and peace lily.
Conclusion
To optimize your working posture, make sure to adopt your body’s neutral postures: keep your back in its natural S-shape and adjust chair and desk to keep the arms and legs at 90 degrees. Adjust the angle of your seat from time to time, and turn your desk into a standing desk: this can be as easy as dumping a laundry basket on your desk, or a couple of encyclopedias. For the best results, alternate sitting and standing at your desk about every half-hour to hour, and regularly take short breaks to go for a walk and get some body movement.
To upgrade your indoor air quality, there are a few easy methods you can apply including opening your windows and curtains, wiping off dust and purifying your indoor air using either a technologically-cool air purifier or some esthetically-pleasing home plants.
Stay tuned for the next 3-Tip Friday: Strengthening your Immune System: Sunlight, Exercise and Cold/Heat Exposure
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