One of the major challenges of working from home is getting your workstation set up right, to help prevent lower back or neck pain. Some of you will be lucky enough to have a home office but for others it is likely to be the dining room table or even the sofa. In reality it isn’t easy to try and recreate the ideal sitting position but here are some tips to try and get it as close as possible.
- The ideal sitting position is as per the image below
- NOTE the sofa won’t work! If you don’t have a home office opt for the dining table or even the breakfast bar before considering the sofa.
If you don’t have the luxury of a home office here are somethings you can try to achieve this –
- Try using old books to go under your feet if they aren’t able to reach the floor whilst maintaining the right position.
- If your chair is to low then try sitting on a pillow to raise yourself up.
- If you have a wireless keyboard that you can link to a laptop then try sitting the laptop on some old books or packs of A4 paper to get the monitor to the correct height
If you don’t have any of these options available then I would emphasise that you really need to try to get up and move every 25 minutes to help reduce the increased load on your lower back and neck. This could be a simple matter of getting up to make yourself a cup of tea or coffee. It doesn’t need to be much just make sure you move.
Sam Pargeter, THE HEALTH HUB