Doctor of Chiropractic, Dr. Alexander Jimenez shares some insights about a pain free workday.
#1. Use Healthy Posture & Movement Patterns
Considering all the emphasis on how little or much we should sit or stand at work, there is almost no discussion of technique in standing and sitting. Inferior technique slumpsitting, archsitting, parking weight is used by many people so on, and poorly on joints.
As long as this is actually true, any place is going to stack up badly in the research—we are starting to see it for standing and ’ve seen this for sitting. Sitting has been much maligned as “the new smoking”; and now standing as a replacement is being demonstrated to cause increased hospitalization due to varicose veins, atherosclerosis that is increased, etc. A good starting point is stretchsitting, to start the journey back to a pain free workday. Stretchsitting is simple, safe, comfy, and therapeutic.
Work with flannel, a towel, or a Stretchsit pillow so it contacts you at mid-back, below the shoulder blades.
- Scoot your bottom all the way back in the seat.
- Lean forwards from the hips, like a mini crunch is being done by you, and tip your ribcage forward.
- Push downwards on the armrests/side bars/seat pan of your chair to get a soft stretch in your lower back.
- Keeping the stretch, lean back out of your hips and adhere your mid back on to the Stretchsit pillow/towel.
- Relax completely, letting the Stretchsit pillow and come from the mini crunch /towel keep you in traction that is light.
- Roll each shoulder back and rest your hands close into your own body.
- Angle your chin down slightly, letting the back of your neck be long.
Scoot your bottom all the way back in the chair.
(a) Lean forward from the hips, and tilt your ribcage forward, like you are doing a mini-crunch. (b) Push downwards on the armrests/side bars/seat pan of your chair to get a gentle stretch in your lower back. (c) Keeping the stretch, lean back from your hips and stick your mid-back on to the Stretch-sit cushion/towel.
(a) Come out of the minicrunch and relax completely, letting the Stretchsit cushion/towel keep you in mild traction. (b) Roll each shoulder back and rest your hands close into your body.
Angle your chin down slightly, letting the back of your neck be long.
#2. Vary Your Baseline Posture
No matter how good your bearing, your body still needs a variety of places. Sitting and standing are the most practical positions for most occupations (example computer occupations)—I recommend switching between them every 20- 30 minutes. If other positions and motions are practical for doing your job (eg, walking when speaking on the phone), that’s an excellent bonus—the more baseline stances and movements, the better. (one sitting against backrest, one stack sitting, standing in a desk, and walking with telephone)
Sitting against the backrest.
Stack sitting
Standing at a desk.
Walking while talking on a cell phone.
