Tips To Correct Your Posture While Working From Home

Working from home is all fun and games until the cons of it kick in. We often have to sit on our chairs for long hours daily without a break. The major area of the problem here is that we do not even have proper working chairs that our offices generally would have. It is best to catch the problem at the base before it stems out into anything big. Health Bound on Markham tells you how important maintaining your posture is. We have brought to you some simple exercises that will help you maintain your posture while working for hours from your home. 

What is the best position to sit in?

There are so many myths doing the rounds of how a proper sitting posture must be that it is almost impossible to decide which one is correct. Here are some tips that will tell you exactly which sitting postures are the best.

1. While sitting, keep your body nearby of the desk. 
2. Keep in mind that your neck and head should be facing forward and in a midline position that is not protruding the chin. 
3. Keep your shoulders relaxed. They must be symmetrical, and your elbows must be close to your body. 
4. You will notice there is a curved part of the backrest of your chair towards the lower region. This space should fit the lumbar curve of the spine perfectly so that the backrest indeed supports the back. 
5. Try to keep your feet flat on the ground and your knees on a level with your hips. Your knees can also be below the level of your hips, but not too above the level. 
6. Leave a space of about 2 to 3 fingers’ width between the back of your knees and the front part of the chair’s sitting platform.  
7. Keep the top of your screen aligned at the level of your eye or just below it. 

What are the characteristics of office furniture? 

The things that office chairs have and the chairs in our home don’t have is what makes the difference. Here are some characteristics of office furniture that is otherwise not present in your home equipment.

Office chairs:

1. Office chairs have adjustable heights. 
2. The heights of the backrest of the chairs are also adjustable so the lumbar support can fit perfectly with the curve your lower back. 
3. The tilt between your seat pan and backrest can be changed to keep your knees aligned to the level of your knees or a bit above them.
4. These chairs also give you the option to adjust your seat pan according to your height. 

Armrests:

1. Armrests are essential for you to get up from and get into your chair with ease. These also provide support to your forearms.  
2. Forearms deserve the utmost level of comfort for you to keep your shoulders relaxed. They would be doing most of your work. 
3. The heights of the armrests can also be adjusted.

Footrests:

1. If you are not able to keep your feet flat on the ground, then these are what you need. 
2. A slope of about 10° to 20° is the best for any footrest. This slope must be adjustable to fit everyone’s comfortable ankle positioning. 
3. They are usually kept on a non-slippery surface so that it does not slip away. 

What are the characteristics of office equipment?

When you are working at home, you can very well take your laptop on your bed and sit with a bunch of pillows behind your back and on your lap. This may feel comfortable, but also give birth to various posture problems. Here is what office equipment has that the laptop in your home does not. 

1. The screen height of the computer is important. It must be either in level with your eye or just a bit below. This will help to reduce visual stress to your eye. 
2. The screen  fits an arm’s length or away from your eye. Increase the font size if it’s difficult to read. 
3. Laptops in your homes are super comfortable but in most cases result in poor posture. Your office would have peripheral components that can be adjusted separately, thus helping you to adjust to them better. 

What do you mean by cervical posture syndrome? 

This is a condition that can stem from poor sitting postures. It causes a very bad posture of the neck, with a protruding chin. This inhibits thoracic extension and results in short pectoral muscles and curved shoulders. This syndrome may cause you to feel severe pain across the neck and shoulders. The prevention of this is occasional movement instead of sitting in the same cramped up posture for hours. Health Bound in Markham has some exercises that could help you regarding this matter. 

How to combat poor posture?

When something is not quite right in your spinal cord you are bound to feel pain. This is in most cases is a result of bad sitting posture for prolonged hours. Here are some exercises that you can try your hand on. 

• Chin tucks:

Withdraw your chin towards your body so that it makes a double chin. Repeat this 2 to 3 times, holding the posture for about 2 to 3 seconds. Increase your sets and challenge yourself.

• Levator Scapulae:

This involves you stretching your chin laterally while supported by your arms.

• Pectoral stretch:

Hold your arm up and rest it again a wall at the right angle. Move a few steps forward till you feel the stretch in your shoulder and your chest. Repeat this set for about half a second or so. 

• Rhomboids:

You can row with a stretching band, or do back extensions using a Swiss ball or you can also lift dumbbells lying flat on your stomach on a bench.  

• Serratus Anterior:

This calls for push-ups as well as exercises and helps you maintain your posture better as well. 

You can also get some more important tips on maintaining your posture on Health Bound on Markham as well. Even though we have a set of exercises that can help you maintain proper posture, it is better to take care of your sitting posture from the beginning itself. After all, prevention is always better than cure.