Why poor workplace posture can lead to pain
Here’s what you can do about it
Forward head, slumping shoulders, tilted pelvis. Just another day glued to our screens.
What does modern-day posture — or lack thereof — functionally do to our body when we spend the day attached to our computer monitors, cellphones and laptops?
“Bad posture can contribute to things like disk herniation, pinched nerves, tingling, arthritic changes in the joints, and tissue getting shorter and tighter,” says Haim Hechtman, a doctor of physical therapy and the co-founder of Point Performance, a physical therapy practice in Maryland.
That sounds painful.
To support these posture improvements, Fidler suggests mixing plank and bridge poses into your exercise routine, as well as two-arm rows using a TRX strap. But even with such exercises, if your poor habits are so ingrained that you no longer know what it feels like to stand up straight, improvement is easier said than done.
Hechtman adds that the longer we have poor posture (years, decades), the harder it is to correct. “The brain gets used to a certain position and perceives that as what ‘upright’ is.”
Occupational therapist and ergonomics expert Naomi Abrams, author of “Why Is My Office a Pain in My . . . ?,” recommends having a friend take a picture of you at your sitting or standing desk to see how your shoulders align (or not) over your hips and where your head is compared with the rest of your spine.
“When you’re doing yoga, you are thinking about posture and yoga, but it’s not realistic to think that you can focus on posture while you’re working,” Abrams says. “We don’t multitask. We serial-task.”
As for the workspace, she recommends bringing work tools closer to your body.
“Use the things — don’t let them use you,” Abrams says.
Are you off the hook if you use a standing desk?
Abrams says that standing desks pose many of the same issues as sitting desks and that they were never intended to be the ultimate posture solution. “We stood people up because we wanted them to move,” she says.
She, Fidler and Hechtman agree that getting up and moving every so often is key to good posture at work.
Abrams takes it a step further: “Why not cha-cha a little at your desk? Dance and wiggle at your desk?”
Original story by Gabriella Boston for The Washington Post.
