Most of us are sitting at our desks, working on a computer, the majority of the day. Here are some tips to help improve your ergonomics and sprinkle in a little fitness during the workday.
Compiled by Eileen Jenkins
If you want to try some workouts at your desk Fitbliss recommends the following:
- Take a 20 to 30 mins walk to boost your brain if you need to focus on a task and solve problems more efficiently.
- Instead of sitting in a chair, sit on the air. Sink your hips low, with your arms alongside your ears. Squeeze your legs together and pull your belly button towards your spine. Relax your shoulders and sit lower. Hold for 10 breaths.
- Step away from your desk and computer for 1 minute and stretch arms straight up pointing to the sky, then out to the sides pointing out. Feel like you’re really stretching your arms out. This relieves neck pain, increases blood to flow throughout your body, and will make you feel re-energized!
- While sitting at your desk or at your workstation, stand and sit 10 times only using your legs (try not to use your hands to bring yourself to a standing position). Keeping the body moving throughout the day allows the blood to flow through the body releasing serotonin and mitigating any hypertension built up. This will improve your mood and improve your overall health!
- While sitting at your desk, put your arms straight up in the air, hands facing each other parallel to each other, then left your shoulders up, and then let them drop. Repeat this exercise between 5-10 times, and 3 times today.
- When walking to the restroom, take a new path that extends the walk to be able to have a longer time to decompress from sitting and/or being next to the computer screen or job role.
Looking for some general ergonomic tips? The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation recommends:
- Every 20 minutes take a break from looking at the computer to look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds
- Take a short break from typing each hour
- If you have a standing desk, they recommend equal amounts of standing and sitting during the day
- No more than 2 hours of standing at a time
- Max of 2-4 hours of standing per day
