Should I Get an Ergonomic Assessment? By Spencer Yam
WFH – the most recent acronym to hit our everyday vocabulary, and the new era of how many of us define “work”. Can you guess what it stands for? That’s right, work from home. Wake up, roll out of bed -insert coffee- take 10 steps to the make-shift work space, sit for 6 hours or more. You may be thinking, that doesn’t sound like Ab Ripper X to me… so why does my body hurt more?
What are we doing? Sitting. Why do we sit? To rest our body. WFH… sit and work = rest while I do my work! How could that be anything but awesome?
The answer is actually quite simple, sitting uses a different muscle group in order to sit upright.
We’ve all been there, a long car or plane ride where all we’re doing is sitting for a long period of time, resting. Your body gets restless, you start shifting your weight from side to side, you start leaning on arm rests and door handles, and when you finally get out of the vehicle it feels good to get up and stretch the tight tired muscles that you’ve been using the whole time to keep yourself upright against gravity.
Sitting isn’t rest for the entire body – it’s rest for the muscles you were just using say while hiking, by changing from one group of active muscles to another. Even while sitting, there are active muscle groups engaged to keep you from melting into a shapeless blob. So do your muscles a favour, make the work of sitting less strenuous.
There are many ways to make your workspace better for the sitting muscles. Some methods include the following:
- Make sure there is ample leg room
- Protect your back and maintain proper posture – a tip for this is to keep your feet flat on the floor
- Keep your screen at level with your eyes
- Try to maintain as much natural light as possible
- Cushion your wrists
Want more tips on how to create an ergonomic workspace? Feel free to message us to find out more information!
Come see us at Barrhaven Health HUB and we’ll help you with an Ergonomic Assessment for your workspace and find the best combination of strategies to avoid getting stuck in your chair.
For an Ergonomic Assessment, contact us by calling 613-406-9001 or email [email protected] and we can help you book one!