Over a year, you have been working from home and the scene is not going to change anytime soon. The pandemic stricken world is moving towards establishing home workstations and it has become a part of our lives now. What we have seen as doctors are several cases of repetitive sprain and joint injuries in working professionals.
This brings up the topic of the importance of an ergonomic lifestyle when working from home. There’s a need to improvising your workstation to ensure better posture and overall health.
We have got you the best ways to maintain ergonomic ways and how it can help your bones and muscles stay fit. Read on!
Significance of ergonomics
Ergonomics is defined as the applied science focusing on the design and arrangement of things you use to interact and work more safely and efficiently. Have you experienced sudden back or neck pain while working for hours on your couch? Probably, yes!
With an ergonomically optimized workspace, you can get rid of this pain and increase your daily productivity. Now you know why ergonomics plays an important role in the lives of people working from home. It will protect you from physical injuries, such as joint pain, sprains and spine injury.
Bad workstation ergonomics can lead to the following issues:
- Musculoskeletal disorders
- Tendon issues
- Stiff neck
- Back injuries
- Headaches and migraines
- Eye strain
- Joint problems
Setting up an ergonomic workspace and how it improves body posture
The first concern while setting up an ergonomic workspace should be maintaining a neutral spine. Unline what you think of the shape of your spine, it is not perfectly straight. A neutral spine is in a naturally curved shape – basically S-shaped.
The top of your spine (close to your neck) curves toward the front and coming to the middle part, the spine curves out with the lower back curved back in. Both while sitting and standing for long periods, this is the best position for your spine.
It won’t take much work to maintain this position while at work. Take a moment to notice how your back feels while you are working on the computer. Does it feel unnatural? Do you feel it’s tight? If so, you are not in the state of neutral spine. Keep making adjustments on the chair until it feels neutral and comfortable.
Use a desk to work
The first thing to confirm is you do no sit on the bed or couch to work. Doing this will not give you the best posture and you will be at risk of spine injury and wrist sprains, especially if your work involves continuous typing.
So, choose a desk and ergonomic chair. Your work desk should always fit your knees, thighs and feet comfortably. Make sure you don’t have to deliberately press your legs to fit, your knees shouldn’t touch anything.
Choose a desk at the right height. Your keyboard and mouse should always be at elbow height. For this, use an external keyboard to type if you are using a laptop because it is ergonomically impossible to fir the placement of the screen and laptop keyboard.
Sit at your ergonomically adjusted desk, bring your arms in a comfortable position before bending the elbows. It confirms you are at the right desk height. In case you don’t have an adjustable desk, you can try some hacks to improvise the working desk. Use some books to raise the surface. If the desk’s surface is already raised, adjust the chair to a comfortable height.
Placing the monitor
The top of your monitor should be a little below your eye level. It means that when you look at the centre of the screen, your eyes should look slightly down. You must hold your neck straight while looking at the monitor. You might need to adjust the screen to ensure you don’t bend your neck down.
The monitor should always be at arm’s length from you. Enabling you to loom at the entire screen at a glance. If that’s not possible, enlarge the tets, wear glasses or move your keyboard farther.
In a Nutshell
In these work from home times, setting up an ergonomic workspace will enable you to maintain good body posture. This further ensures your bones and muscles are not put through excessive strain to work freely. All you need to do is not put unnecessary stress on your joints and spine.