Working in an office might mean that you are working at your favourite job, but it can be harsh on your physical health. The most common problems with working from a desk is lower back pain and weight gain. The main reason that these issues occur is simply to do with a sedentary lifestyle and lack of overall movement. Below I'll list three key areas to work on to make sure that your physical health is well looked after.
The first area you can work on, and is arguably the most important, is stretching and strengthening your muscles. As we sit down for long periods of time, some muscles with become stretch and become weaker, and other muscles will shorten and tighten up. If you imagine yourself sitting at a desk chair the following happens to your muscles; your hamstrings, hip flexors (muscles on the front of your hip), core muscles and chest will shorten and tighten. On the reverse of this, your quadriceps, glutes and lower and upper back will stretch and weaken. To combat this, you will need to stretch the muscles that are tight to make sure you can get a full range of motion in them - basic guidance will get you stretching these muscles for 20 seconds each. When it comes to strengthening, we need to pick movements that will work on multiple muscles at one time - think about exercises such as deadlifts and squats. The main benefit of strengthening your muscles in that it will improve your posture and resolve issues such as rounded shoulders. By working on a healthy range of motion in all muscles and having adequate strength in each group will help to relieve any pain that you are having however, it's always worth remembering that your pain may be caused by other factors, and resolving this is not a one size fits all method.
The second area to work on is getting a good amount of steps in throughout your week. The main two issues that cause weight gain is eating too many calories, and not burning enough calories through exercise. We can obviously drop the amount of calories we eat, but we can't keep doing that otherwise we risk the health of our immune system. If we increase our activity levels and burn more calories, it means we don't have to keep dropping our calorie intake too low. This can be an issue when you work at a desk, because you don't move a lot throughout the day. A study published in International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity said that for an average adult, the amount of steps needed was between 7,500 to 10,000 steps. You don't have to get too creative to get these steps in; you could try getting into running and take big walks around your park. Other methods to try and increase your steps is to take regular breaks from your desk, don't email people in the same office and go and speak to them in person, and use the stairs more than lifts (I know these are very cliche, but they do work!).
Lastly, you want to focus on your posture. This is something that should become habit to you, and you always want to be aware of how you are carrying yourself and how you sit at your desk. Benefits of good posture include less wear and tear on your joints, reduced fatigue and maximises how efficiently you expend your energy. Although muscles can stretch or tense up by our seated position, we can help reduce the effects of the seated position by working on strength around upper back and keeping shoulders pulled back and down, and also keeping our computer at eye level so out neck is kept in a neutral position. We should also focus on our posture when we're standing, and make sure that we are constantly keeping ourselves in that neutral position. This position is as follows: eyes facing forward and head not leaning forward, shoulders pulled back and down, and keeping our hips tucked underneath us (check Youtube for videos on posterior and anterior tilt of the hips to see how bad posture can look). These three are the main components of good posture and usually the areas that get pulled out of good posture the most.
So there you have it; three areas for you to focus on to improve physical health when you have a desk job! As always, get in touch if you have any questions or want to carry on the conversation about anything in this blog.
Check https://rdcu.be/b7BTK for the meta analysis on step count.