Stretching - Ergonomics And Office Chairs And How They Affect Your Health

Even with a well-designed workstation, when working long hours in your office chair, problems may arise. When problems arise, attention has to be paid to the work at hand and how it is performed daily if the person plans to continue working these long hours. When working long hours in front of a computer or at a particular workstation, you tend to hold the same posture for hours without much movement at all of certain muscles and over-stimulation of others. This leads to nothing but muscle pain and strain.

Movement is critical to ergonomic posturing and keeping good body health when it is required to continue working at a single task for hours at a time. What is important is two things to keep in mind when at work.

First is to get a good ergonomic chair, one that has as much movement as you can afford, some of the more expensive models, which are built for people in chairs for longer than 6-8 hours a day, can almost mimic the body's movements and keep your feet flat on the floor and your eyes at the same level even when reclining. Any chair, as long as it has good reclining positions with tilt tension adjustment will do as long as you remember the second critical ingredient to healthy seating when in your office chair.

#2: It is crucial to your overall body health to take frequent breaks when working in your office chair for long hours. It seems that everyone has a different recommendation for how long and when to take these breaks. The average recommendation by most ergonomists seems to be 5-10 minutes every hour and a half of sitting in a chair. You can also help while working to help to relieve the stress by remembering some simple techniques to help reduce muscle strain.

Try to vary your different daily tasks so that you are not constantly clicking on the mouse for long hours or typing away without using anything else for hours. Also try to refocus your eyes on something other than your computer screen every so many minutes throughout the hour to make sure to lessen eye strain and of course neck strain from being held in one position for too long.

If you can, try to adjust your posture and remember to slightly recline instead of hunching over as the hours progress and your eyes strain to be closer and closer to your monitor.

Stretching your legs while at the office and getting out of that office chair every so often to strech your back as well, can help to lessen the chances of suffering through Carpal Tunnel, Chronic Back Pain or any of the other muscle related office chair injuries that can be avoided with a little practice of better ergonomic movement and constant stretching.