The sweat starts to seep into your shirt, so you learn forward to get what little air flow you can. The spot in the middle right of your back begins to ache more. You’ve cramped yourself down on a cheap chair with a desk that’s too small for you. When you get home, you know your neck will tight for the rest of the night, but hey that’s office work...right?
Here at Cirrus Insight, we’re all about trying make your work easier and more comfortable by integrating your email and Salesforce, and automating your marketing, but sadly apps can’t actually fix all your daily problems (though we’re trying).
I struggle myself with having good posture and not killing myself by sitting all day. Like you I’ve heard how sitting is “the new smoking” and know it’s terrible for me, but you can read those articles all day and not improve on anything at all. So I thought we could get personal for minute and actually talk about sitting and posture.
Let’s dive into the issue and see what we can do.
Is it really that bad?
Quick answer: yeah, it’s pretty bad. Various sources list how bad posture causes depression, lowers people’s impression of you, increases risk of death/disease, and causes stress.
I’m willing to believe cause it’s mid-afternoon and my back already hurts (though I think it’s started to hurt more since I’ve been focusing on it now).
What Can We Do to Get Better?
There’s the obvious, don’t slouch! But we’ll get to all the little sitting tips in a minute. The simplest solution, I think, is to spend less time sitting.
Standing Desk Solution-A few of my coworkers use standing desks and seem to like. My feet tend to hurt when I stand up for too long, but I bet if I got better shoes and alternated every so often between standing and sitting I’d feel a lot better.
Walk Around/Take More Short Breaks-I do try and occasionally stand up for a minute walk outside briefly, or just move around to perk myself and help feel better. You don’t want to wander off on long strolls, but depending on your office environment, standing up and moving for just a couple minutes can be a big help. There’s a ping-pong table in my office area that a lot of people like to use for some light exercise and movement during the day.
However, what if you can’t stand around and the odd break isn’t doing much for you? Let’s see how we’re actually suppose to be sitting.
- Eyes level with the top third of your computer monitor
- At least a foot and a half away from the computer
- Tilt forward a little so you’re sitting more on your hamstrings and less on your tailbone (I translate this to sit on the back of your thighs more and less on your butt and lower back), your hips should be as far back in the chair
- Keep your shoulders rolled back, so you’re not hunched forward (your ears should be in-line with your shoulders)
- Legs uncross, feet flat on the floor, and knees forming a 90 degree angle
- Stretch often (seems there’s at least one person out there recommending stretching or lightly exercising any muscle you can think that would help your work day, so can’t really go wrong)
My Impression of Attempting Correct Posture
My first reaction: this feels weird. Second reaction: my desk might be too short, or maybe I’ve just been sitting too high.
But after actually trying it for a little while today, my back is still kinda sore, but overall I feel more professional. I’m curious to see if I started out my day sitting correctly if I could keep it up the whole day and how I would feel.
The biggest challenge is increasing body awareness. It’s annoying to constantly be thinking about how I’m sitting and correcting it. However, if you can build that habit, it will come more naturally. Like starting a new workout routine, the hardest part is getting started and committing to it.
Give it a try right now and see what you think. I know if I don’t start something right away, I’m not getting any closer to making the change I want to make.
Life’s annoying enough without back pain. Let’s see if we can make this whole posture thing actually help.