How To Sit At Work If You Have Back Pain – Follow This Guide

By Philip Yiga | July 1, 2015

Sitting ergonomically while at work will actually helps to promote productivity and health of your entire body. In fact, people who sit for about 8-hours while working per day are more prone to back injuries due to unhealthy postures. Likewise, incorrect, sitting postures can also place strain onto the spine column thus creating nerve and muscular pains. However, there a several things that you can do ensure that you are sitting in a healthy way ranging from adjusting your desk setup to ensuring a good sitting posture. All in all, this article will list for you some of the ways sit while at work in case you’re experiencing back pain and it would be great if you took some time to read through it.

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STEPS TO FOLLOW WHILE SITTING AT WORK IF YOU HAVE BACK-PAIN:

• Try to be active at work: although you may set your work-desk ergonomically correct, being inactive is one of the major causes of back-pain due to muscle atrophy. So you should try to get up and do some simple exercises like walking around the office, going to a printer, standing for a few minutes and many other things that can your body active.

• Consider using an exercise-ball: try to consider working in 10-minutes intervals while using an exercise ball at your work-desk for at least 3-times per day. Additionally, make sure that the ball is at the same height as the desk-chair that you sit on. The exercise-ball will actually help to engage your muscles during this period hence strengthening the core muscles and relieving any back-pain.

 

• Select an adjustable office-chair: try to choose an office-chair that can be adjusted in a reclining position. In fact, you should angle your office-chair back to a 135-degree because scientists have discovered that the back experiences the least amount of stress when reclining at this angle or degree. Likewise, also try to get an office-chair with a lumbar support in order to offer your back with optimum support when sitting. However, you should avoid sitting-up straight because this can cause muscle fatigue especially if the core muscles are weak and also slumping forward can be the worst sitting position.

 

• Sit in your office-chair with the thighs flat: try to sit in an office-chair while your thighs are flat and parallel to the ground. In fact, your office-chair should always be left at that height where the thighs are flat and parallel for results. On top of that, try to keep your feet flat on to the floor in order to avoid straining the legs and thighs.

 

• Bend the elbows while working: it is recommended to bend your elbows until notice that the forearms are parallel to the ground while sitting. In fact, your work-desk should be slightly lower than this height in order to keep your forearms flat while typing. On the other hand, you can also ask a friend the height when you’re sitting properly so that you can be able to achieve the exact measurements. However, in case you can’t adjust your work-desk, then it’s better to be too high than too low to that desk. In fact, if the desk is too high, then adjust the chair so that your elbows can be parallel to the ground and you can even place a foot-rest under the desk so that the thighs can stay parallel to the ground.

 

• Sit closer to your work-desk: always sit close-enough to your desk so that the monitor is kept in an arm’s width away from the face. This will ensure proper eyesight hence you will not have to lean forward at all while working thus minimizing any back-issues. Likewise, try to place the monitor high-enough so that you don’t have to move down or up to achieve a good sight of the screen.

 

• Get headsets if you frequently use the phone: try to purchase a good pair of heads in case you frequently talk on the phone or use the phone other purposes like playing music. This is very important because craning the neck towards the phone or holding the phone between the chin and shoulder can be extremely dangerous for your cervical spine and may result into neck-pain or even a repetitive stress injury.

 

• Adjust the chair’s armrests to a proper position: it is advised to adjust the chair’s armrests in a position where they lift your shoulders slightly above but not too high. This little lift in your shoulders will help to offer length to the body and extra support for the wrists while sitting as you work.

 

• Place the wrists in a proper position: placing your wrists in a position where you can hold them right above the keyboard is good for your arms while sitting as you work. However, try to ensure that the wrists don’t tip up or down because this will strain the muscles in your arms causing arm pain while working.

 

• Put frequently used desk-objects next to the arms: try to place all commonly used desk-objects within an arm’s reach either on the right or left. This will prevent you from stretching in order to access these objects while working. Such objects actually include; the mouse, stapler, keyboard, phone and many others that you may need while working.

 

TIPS TO CONSIDER WHILE SITTING AT YOUR WORK-DESK:

• Sitting-up straight is good for the core muscles as long as they are engaged. However, if you are sitting longer hours during the work-days, a reclining sitting-posture is believed to be the best because it reduces on straining within your back muscles.
• It’s good to frequent breaks while working on your desk by simply going for a short exercise like walking around, stretching and standing for a few minutes or anything that makes your body active because this improves blood circulation thus keeping your entire body healthy.
• Always buy and use the right office-chair if you wish to keep your back and entire body in good condition. Such a chair should be fully adjustable and should even have a lumber support so as to fully support your back while sitting as you work.