Is sedentary work impacting your health? Learn how ergonomic solutions can improve your workspace and boost your wellness. Dive into expert tips now!
You can make ergonomic changes to sedentary work by using active chairs, standing desks, balance boards, and anti-fatigue mats. These can alleviate pain and prevent future health issues from happening.
A study done by Nilsson et al., published in The Journal of Nutrition, Health, and Aging, found that low amounts of time spent in sedentary behavior were related to a lower metabolic syndrome risk. This is great news, but when you work a full-time desk job, it's hard not to be sedentary.
Fortunately, even if you have sedentary work, there are proactive steps you can take to have an ergonomic desk setup. That way, not only can you improve your wellness, but also boost your productivity.
What Are the Ergonomics for Seated Workers?
Ergonomics for seated workers focus on designing the workspace to:
- Support comfort
- Reduce strain
- Promote good posture
In general, the chair should have adjustable heights and lumbar support. It should allow your feet to rest flat on the floor, and your arms should be parallel to the floor.
There should be proper lighting too, as sedentary workers are prone to eye strain.
What Is the Most Unhealthy Sitting Position?
The most unhealthy sitting position is one where your body is slouched or hunched forward for long periods. This is often referred to as the C-shaped posture, which consists of the following characteristics:
- Shoulders rounded forward
- Spine curved excessively
- Head jutted out toward the screen
As you can imagine, this posture places significant strain on not just your neck, but also your shoulders and lower back. This can result in a number of health issues, anything from muscle tension to spinal misalignment.
Ergonomic Solutions for Sedentary Work
Now that you've learned a little about what you shouldn't do, let's explore what you should do when doing sedentary work. Here are ergonomic solutions you can implement at your workplace.
Active Chairs
An active chair is also known as a wobble stool or balance stool. As the name suggests, it's purposely unstable so that you're constantly moving while sitting on it. You can rock, tip, or twist slightly, and that's a huge difference from sitting still all day.
Not only can you reduce muscle fatigue with an active chair, but you can also:
- Maintain core engagement
- Improve postural alignment
- Boost circulation
Even if you're at your desk for 8 hours straight, this dynamic seating option lets you have mild engagement instead.
Standing Desk
An excellent way to stop being sedentary at work is to stand up! But you don't want to be even more hunched over at your desk, so get a standing desk instead. These have adjustable heights that can be changed with the press of a button, and you don't have to hand crank them either.
Whenever you feel like you've been sitting down for too long, you can raise the height of the desk, get up off your chair, and stand while doing work. This can improve your posture and reduce pain, as well as enhance your cardiovascular health. When you feel better, you'll be more productive too!
Balance Board
While you're standing up and working, you may naturally shift your weight from time to time, and this can help combat a sedentary lifestyle. But you can do even more with a balance board.
Although it may sound scary, it's built to keep you steady and stable. It's easy to step on and off, even though it has 360-degree motion.
You don't have to be constantly balancing, but you can rock, tilt, twist, move, and surf on it!
Anti-Fatigue Mat
Of course, standing is good for you, but long periods of it can cause fatigue, even if you're wearing good shoes. Don't sit down and embrace the sedentary lifestyle again just yet though, as there's the anti-fatigue mat to the rescue.
This is an active standing mat that has a contoured surface. Not only does it encourage movement while standing, but it'll keep you comfortable for hours.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How Much Sedentary Time Is Too Much?
In general, you should limit your sedentary time to less than 8 hours per day. Do note that even shorter periods of continuous sitting (more than 30-60 minutes at a time) can negatively affect your health.
Prolonged sitting can:
- Slow metabolism
- Reduce circulation
- Increase the risk of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes
It's best to break up sedentary time with light activity every 30 minutes, such as:
- Standing
- Stretching
- Taking a short walk
What Is an Example of a Sedentary Worker?
A sedentary worker is someone whose job primarily involves sitting, and there's minimal physical activity throughout the workday. Common examples are:
- Office employees
- Computer programmers
- Accountants
- Call center operators
- Administrative staff
These people often spend long hours at their desks, and they typically use their computers or handle paperwork.
How to Undo Damage From Sitting All Day?
To undo damage from sitting all day, one of our best health tips for office workers is to incorporate movement into your daily routine. Try to stand or move for at least 5-10 minutes every hour, even if it's just walking to refill your water, stretching at your desk, or taking calls while standing.
You can even do desk exercises, which can alleviate stiffness and discomfort. Outside of desk exercises, you should get regular exercise to help improve circulation and posture.
Optimizing your workstation setup with ergonomic furniture can help too. For example, a standing desk can be great for sitting disease prevention.
Combat the Negative Effects of Sedentary Work
Even if you enjoy what you do, sedentary work can have detrimental effects on your health. Not only can it make you feel terrible now, but it can also have long-lasting effects that can be painful and costly to deal with.
Don't let it get to that point; instead, invest in your future now. Spend a little money and time to optimize your workspace, and you'll feel a world of difference. Your body will thank you, and you'll feel much better in doing things outside of work too!
If you're ready to do workspace optimization, then browse our sales section now. Uncaged Ergonomics has been creating unique ergonomic office products from scratch since 2010, and we aim to provide you with affordable and useful products.