Should I Sit or Stand at Work?

After 8 hours of sitting at work can hurt your back. Keeping sitting straight is not the solution.

Let me give you the explanations.

At the office, you will never find the perfect position for the back to be pain-free at the end of the working day.

Everyone should avoid slouching and stay upright when sitting.

However, visiting straight can create sour tensions as the same muscles would work a too long time.

The lumbar spine may accept some time reclining on the only condition it does not last too long either.

The Best Solution

The best solution is to regularly have a break and move around and change your posture. The idea is not to feel ache or pain or even tension before moving or altering the way you sit.

You can put a post-it on your computer screen, "Watch your posture!", "Have a break!", "Stretch out", etc.

You can also use the timer of your mobile to ring to get a break.

This is particularly important when you are doing some work demanding significant concentration. Your brain will ignore the signals and feedback from the body, indicating tension and suffering.

In an open office, bins and printers are more and more located in the centre of the room so that the staff need to walk.

You can walk to answer the phone.

Do not hesitate to stretch back, legs and shoulders meanwhile.

The Ideal Posture

The ideal posture would be to have lumbar support, such as the back chair in the hollow of the lower back or a half-roll, and not hunching without being upright.

Do not cross the legs that freeze the way you sit, certainly slouching.

You can ask your workmate and colleagues to watch your back and reciprocally.

A current trend is to get a standing desk. This is not the panacea.

Prolonged standing can also create disorders in the back and the legs because of blood circulation.

The basics of ergonomics, working on a computer, are to fit the top of the screen at the level of the eyes and avoid working on laptops.

I highly recommend you plug a wire into a large screen or put the laptop on a book pile and plug in a keyboard.

Do not hesitate to ask for more details when visiting our chiropractors during your next chiropractic session.