How to Improve Sitting Posture for a Healthy Back While Working from Home

Have you been sitting straight on your back while doing all your necessary documents or reports? If yes, then you deserve a pat on the shoulder. this shows that you make way for a healthier body and space for your mind. However, if not, It’s okay! You should probably focus on your body posture to strengthen your emotional and physical wellbeing. Due mainly to coronavirus outbreaks, the majority of businesses have assigned their employees to work from home.

There are a lot of advantages resulting from working at home. In certain cases, you get to decide your own hours, you wouldn’t have to hold up traffic all day, and you don’t need to worry about what clothes you’re going to wear that day. However, there are disadvantages to these benefits. One such limitation that you may face as a result of working at home is bad posture.

Bad posture may easily escalate to certain long-term health problems, and yet most of us don’t even know that we may already have been executing bad posture.

Why It’s Essential to Have a Proper Posture?

Posture is the place whereby you maintain and hold the position of your body while standing, sitting, or lying down. Healthy posture includes training the body to stand, walk, sit, and lie and exert the least pressure on the muscles and ligaments once you are driving or doing weight-bearing daily activities. Proper posture will help you in the following ways:

• Keeps bones and joints in the correct place (alignment) to ensure the proper use of muscles.
• Helps to mitigate the stress and strain of joint surfaces (such as the knee) thus preventing arthritis from happening or recurring.
• Decreases the pressure on the spinal ligaments.
• Prevents the spine from being fixed in irregular places.
• Helps to prevent fatigue when muscles are used more effectively, allowing the body to consume less energy.
• Prevents back pain and muscle pain

It is important to maintain a proper stance and a balanced back and spine to follow the right sitting pose. Most people can enhance their sitting condition by following several basic guidelines. The best sitting posture depends on the height of the person, the chair they’re using, and the task they’re doing while seated.

How to Obtain a Proper Sitting Posture

• Hold your legs down or sit on either the floor or the footrest.
• Try to avoid bending your legs or feet.
• Establish a slight distance between the back of the knee and the chair.
• Placing the elbows at the same height or even lower than the hips.
• Putting the ankles in front of the knees.
• Try to relax your shoulders.
• Keep the forearms and knees as parallel to the floor as possible.

People who are most likely to sit at the desk for prolonged periods of time because of their job or school need to take extra precautions to ensure that they establish a safe posture and back.

When working in front of a computer or laptop for a long time, a person can help increase his or her sitting posture by:

• Keep the screen at arm’s length and not more than 2 inches above the normal line of sight.
• Personalizing workspaces, such as incorporating footrests, wrist pads, or backrests.
• Use a standing desk to allow yourself to transition between sitting and standing.
• Using a headset for prolonged calls or dictation to minimize neck strain.
• Positioning the keyboard and mouse next to each other to completely avoid reaching.
• Get up and walk around frequently, particularly if you have some muscle or joint pain.

Whilst in the right position, attempt to do a mental review every 10 to 15 minutes to see if the posture has shifted and performed any changes. An individual with a poor posture will improve this with time, understanding, and determination. It may take weeks or months for some individuals to see significant benefits from working on their posture. When a person has changed his or her posture, he or she may continue to strive to sustain that, ensuring that he or she will also have to remember to notice unhealthful positions and change them.

In addition to making adjustments to your computer desk positioning, you might also want to add a few easy workouts to help keep your body limber and healthy.

Here are a few exercises to try:

1. Chin Tucks – Raise your head straight back so that your ears are in accordance with your shoulders. Hold your chin down and think about increasing height from the top of your head. Keep for about 10 seconds and repeat 10 times.
2. Thoracic Extension – Lay on the floor over a foam roller or a towel roll on the upper back as seen and keep the position for up to one minute.
3. Corner Pec Stretch – Position the forearms on the walls in the corner with the elbows around the back. Place one foot in front of the other, extend your front knee and move your body closer to the corner. Maintain in position for 20-30 seconds and repeat Alternatively, you can perform this stretch in the doorway as well.
4. Shoulder Flexion – Push your arms and shoulder blades up and try to lift your arms as high as possible without twisting them.
5. Horizontal abduction – Raise your arms to the left as high as possible and aim to put your shoulder blades close.
6. Shoulder Extension – Push both your arms up and raise them as far as possible.

Your posture is expected to change if you perform these 6 exercises; nevertheless, you need to be consistent and prepare your body and focus your mind to maintain a healthy posture. Start today, already! It’s going to be a lot harder to improve your bad posture the longer you put it off.

Improving your stance whilst you can make life much easier. A lot of people waste too much time lying down. Sitting inappropriately, particularly at a desk, and as we all know can be bad for your back’s health and posture. However, understanding what a healthy sitting posture looks like and following a few basic guidelines and exercises, enables a person to understand how to improve themselves and thereby maintain a good posture.

Need help with your posture?

At Evergreen Rehab and Wellness, we provide holistic healthcare which includes helping you in getting the proper posture. We have registered physiotherapists that can help you. You may also book for an online physiotherapy session here.

Evergreen is Everywhere for Everyone – Let’s Help You Achieve Your Health and Wellness Goals

At Evergreen Rehab & Wellness – Coquitlam, we have Physiotherapists that will help you achieve your health and wellness goals.

We don’t only have Physiotherapists in Coquitlam, we also have Physiotherapists in Langley that are always ready to provide patients in these areas with custom and high-quality care.

You may contact us through the following:

Physiotherapy Clinic in Coquitlam

• Evergreen Rehab & Wellness – Coquitlam
• Email:[email protected]
• Telephone Number: 604.449.5859
• Book Online Today!