Back pain and sore muscles have become a very annoying part of our daily life. They have been an inconvenience since desk jobs have been around, and they are a problem that not even home office has been able to solve. The consequences of sitting in the wrong position for long periods of time are many: neck pain, migraines, and joint and tendon problems.
How to Reduce the Soreness?
A simple exercise to reduce this discomfort is to sit on the floor and place your hands on the ground behind your back, forming a right angle. Then, take the weight to the arms, without bending the elbows. As the back muscles open, take a deep breath to stretch the upper shoulder muscles.
However, if you can’t help it and you need to spend long hours sitting down, you can improve your posture while writing. To do it, you must always keep your torso upright and supported along with the pelvis well attached to the back of the chair. But the correct position will depend on whether you are going to write by hand or on a computer.
How to Sit to Write by Hand
To sit down to write on paper, the chest should be close to the edge of the table to prevent the body from leaning forward. The feet should rest on the floor. The elbows, bent, should reach the table.
When you write, your arms should be resting on the table, with the shoulders parallel to the edge. Your hands must be in line with the wrists, making the forearm and the back form a straight line. You must avoid bad postures, like reclining the body to one side or lying on the table because you are tired.
How to Sit to Type on a Computer
To type on a computer, you must position yourself at the correct distance from the keyboard. The aim is to keep the arms bent at 90 degrees and the back fully supported. The screen should be in front of your eyes, and your sight should travel about 60 degrees between the screen and the keyboard. You must avoid extending the arms too much because this causes the back to bend.
Your shoulders must remain relaxed, slightly bent forward so that the arms can hang naturally, with the elbows forming a 90-degree angle with the table, away from the body. Your fingers should be on the keyboard, and the wrists shouldn’t rest too much on it. Lastly, your legs should be bent at 90 degrees, with your feet resting on the floor.
Your Best Ally: The Right Chair
Whether you write by hand or on a computer, it’s very important that the chair you use is not too high. When you write by hand, a high chair causes the body to lean too far forward to be able to write, hunching the back and neck excessively. In turn, when typing on a computer, a big chair can cause the feet not to have full support on the floor and the knees to be below the hip line, generating excessive lumbar pressure and sciatica pain.
You should also get used to taking a short walk around wherever you are every 45 minutes and moving your eyes away from the screen every 10 minutes. These small actions help prevent eye and cervical strain.
Exercises to Improve your Sitting Posture
In this section, we suggest a series of exercises to improve your sitting posture.
- Frequently change your position while sitting
- Take short walks around your office or home
- Gently stretch your muscles from time to time to help relieve muscle tension
- Don’t cross your legs. Keep your feet on the floor with your ankles slightly past your knees
- Make sure your feet touch the floor. If that’s not possible, use a footrest
- Relax your shoulders. They shouldn’t be hunched nor pulled back
- Keep your elbows close to your body. They should be bent between 90 and 120 degrees
- Make sure your back is well supported. Use a pillow or other support if your chair doesn’t have support for your lower back curve
- Make sure your thighs and hips are well supported. You should have a well-padded seat, and your thighs and hips should be parallel to the floor.
Those who can afford to commit more to their well-being can opt for ergonomic furniture or accessories, which are specially designed to reduce the negative impact of different postures on the body. There’re keyboards, wrist rests, lumbar cushions, computer stands, chairs (increasingly used by the gamer community), and footrests designed for comfort, ease, and less effort.
Conclusion
Maintaining a good posture will not only improve your writing performance by increasing your concentration and your ability to think, but it will also improve your overall quality of life.
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