In these challenging times, many of us are now working from home. Sitting at a kitchen or dining table hunched over a laptop has the potential to cause or aggravate back pain, neck pain, tension headaches to name a few.
Key advice:
- Try to set up your work station so that you are sat upright, with your hips above your knees. Adding a cushion onto a chair will help with this and reduce low back fatigue. (Lying on your bed or the floor is likely to make you stiff!)
- Take regular breaks. Every 30-40 minutes stand up and move. It is easy to get absorbed in what you are working on, the longer you are working the more postural fatigue you will build up. Breaking regularly to move will help give the muscles a break and re-set the posture.
- Motion is lotion! Usually you would be commuting and generally out and about moving throughout the day. When it comes to comfortable joint and muscle movement, it is a case of use it or lose it! Sitting or lying still with very little in the way of movement will cause you to stiffen up and can cause musculoskeletal conditions. You could try some exercise classes online, walk around your garden, or go out for a walk (while maintaining social distancing of course.) Keeping moving will also help your mental health.
