The COVID pandemic has changed life in a number of ways - and one of those is more people now have the ability to work from home. Many will probably continue to work from home long after the pandemic finishes - opting to slide right out of bed and to the desk rather than fight the traffic or public transport system.
At this time of year, we would usually be seeing sports injuries trying to get right for the finals, gym injuries or running injuries as people prepare for the spring and summer triathalon and running events.
However, in 2020, we have seen a lot of ergonomic injuries - people suffering neck pain, headaches, back pain, hip pain, elbow pain, wrist pain and many more pains from sitting at their home offices. In the work office, people have access to properly set up workstations, however at home, this has been neglected due to COVID and has not been addressed. It is predicted that the number of workplace injuries is set to rise dramatically towards the back half of the year, with an increase in claims expected from insurers.
But, what can you do to avoid this?
There are severeal things that you can do - but the two quickest changes that you can make will often have the biggest impact to your pain.
1. Make sure that you hop up from your desk regularly. It is recommended that 10 minutes out of every hour is away from your desk. No matter what posture you are in, if you hoid this for too long, you will get sore. The body is designed to move - and your best posture is your next posture. Furthermore, sitting for long periods is almost the new smoking. There are a lot of harmful effects from sitting and this can impact your other body systems.
2. Change your desk set up. Please see above for a quick and easy reference point to tick off some basic and important changes.
There are certainly other changes that you can make. We work with local Braeside businesses and can help you establish an appropriate ergonomic set up to help reduce the risk of developing injuries! To help you with your exercise programming and reduce the potential development of cardiac (high blood pressure etc) issues, our Exercise Physiologist Kate can help prescribe a home program for your to ensure that you are remaining fit and well. This is particularly important with the restrictions around gyms and outdoor exercise at present.
Please call 95801985 to learn more.