SITTING POSTURE DURING COVID-19

Sitting posture is extremely important for everybody whether you’re at school, playing video games, studying at university, working an office job or coming home from a day on the tools to sit in front of the computer. It is increasingly important with the current COVID-19 pandemic that is forcing people into self-isolation. A lot of workplaces are now providing a more ergonomic working environment and assessments of your work space. However, when it comes to working at home, a lot of us either don’t understand how to set up the most posture friendly working environment, or get lazy and fall into bad postural habits. With more people now doing a full working week from home, performing the below checklist will reduce your chances of postural overload injuries.

Your COVID-19 home desk set up:

The position of your lower body in your chair is important. When you are sitting you want your hips to be at 90 degrees with your thighs parallel to the ground. You also want your knees to be bent at 90 degrees with your feet planted flat on the ground. If your chair is too high you may be reaching for the ground or dangling your feet. If your chair is too low then you will be in deeper hip flexion, which is bad for you hips and back.

Your chair should be close to the desk with your arms relaxed by your side and your elbows at roughly 90-100 degrees with your forearms in line with the desk and your head directly over your shoulders. If your elbows are at a greater angle then you are reaching forward which affects the posture of your shoulders, upper back and neck.

Ideally, You want either a portable keyboard that you can connect to you laptop or have a desktop set up. You want your screen to be at eye level, so you can raise your laptop or desktop screen to an appropriate level using a stand, split level desk or simply just books. If you only have a laptop to work with then follow the instruction on sitting posture to your best ability. Make sure you get up and move around regularly to get water of eat as you will be looking down at the computer screen constantly.

Looking down at a screen, sitting with rounded shoulders or leaning forward for prolonged periods of time is what leads to a majority of headache, neck and back issues we see as physiotherapists. If you are having any pain in these regions come in and let us show you how to better you work environment and reduce your pain.

Ryan de la Harpe

Physio at Aevum Sutherland Shire