Back pain from sitting on the job?
A lot of people were in this past week talking about the same thing. They have back pain that typically feels worse if they have to sit for prolonged periods. This is quite troubling because most people’s jobs involve sitting, working at a desk or in front of a computer.
I blogged about this last spring so you’ll have to bear with me if I’m sounding redundant but there were so many people saying the same thing this week, I thought it might be worth going over again.
Our bodies are meant to move so if we ask them to remain motionless for extended periods, stiffness and pain usually result. Probably the most common example of this is sitting at desks or in front of computers. There are a number of fancy biomechanics reasons for this, however suffice it to say, if you sit for quite a bit of your day, your body is going to start complaining.
There is a myth out there that improving your work station ergonomics will prevent back pain from sitting. I don’t believe this. Of course, changing your workstation around to better fit your body is a good idea. Any reduced stress or strain should translate into reducing pain and symptoms, however I don’t care how good your ergonomics are, if you’re going to sit there for 3 or 4 hours without a break, you’re going to hurt!
So what is the answer?
It may seem like common sense, but I think the answer is don’t sit there for 3 or 4 hours at a time!
No kidding, you say! But that isn’t very practical. I need to get this work done and I get so involved in tweaking that spread sheet that I lose track of time and the next thing I know, it is lunch time. If I’m up every 1/2 hour or so and wandering around, my boss will likely start recommending I consider taking a more permanent break from my job.
I get that so the key here is to balance out getting your work done, while at the same time building in enough small breaks to cut your body some slack. I’m not talking about getting up every 30 minutes and going to the bathroom or to the water cooler or to your co-worker’s office to bug them. Those methods are definately counterproductive.
People will tell me that their impression is they don’t sit for prolonged periods at a time. Their job has them getting up and down quite often but they still experience progressive back pain so what gives?.
I’m afraid just getting up and wandering down the hall to get another coffee, go to the washroom or visit a co-worker won’t cut it. That isn’t giving your body enough of a break to make much of a difference.
There are two types breaks I would recommend you build into your work day: Micro and Mini-breaks. I have two short videos that describe these breaks and show what you can do during them to alleviate the stress and strain. Check them out:
Micro-Breaks
Mini-Breaks
These two types of breaks should be easily built into your normal workday within reason. I understand it would look pretty weird if you are sitting in a 4 hour meeting with a bunch of other people and you are getting up every 30-45 minutes to do some callisthenics on the board room table. I’m not suggesting that.
The point here is that you need to become more conscious of your work habits and then use these tips and tricks to try and give your body a chance to recover from the stress and strain it endures from sitting too long (like what is happening right now from me writing this blog!).
The trick is to try and build movement and activity into your normal daily routine rather than considering it “exercise” which implies you need to dedicate some special time and energy to the activity.
I would like to hear from you on what you think of this advice. Feel free to comment if you think this is practical given your work day activities or if you have any other suggestions how we could change it up to make it more real world.
Very helpful tips, especially because lots of us are saddled to our computers most of the day. Have you considered doing little pockets cards just listing the names of the exercises, how many sets and how often to do them. Oh I also think the newsletter is great!
Thanks Val. I hadn’t considered this but think it is a great suggestion and will look into what might be involved in creating these.
-Gord