Sitting Ducks

PICTURE this. You8217;re sitting at a desk or a work station. Most of your workday8217;s spent like this anyway. You couldn8217;t be safe...

PICTURE this. You8217;re sitting at a desk or a work station. Most of your workday8217;s spent like this anyway. You couldn8217;t be safer, you think.

You couldn8217;t be more off the mark. Sitting at a desk, you8217;re probably as much at risk of limb8212;if not of life8212;as you would be meeting sales targets scurrying around on a scooter.

Are desk jobs a risk to health?
Ever catch yourself massaging a shoulder at the end of a workday? Or shifting in your chair, trying to find a position that8217;ll support that aching back? That8217;s the toll your safe job is extracting from you. 8216;8216;Sitting constantly in one position in office and leading a sedentary life outside often results in neck and back pain,8217;8217; says Dr Yash Gulati, senior orthopaedic surgeon at Indraprastha Apollo.

8216;8216;Lower mobility results in wrong posture, leading to muscle fatigue, degeneration of bones and soft tissues and you feel it as pain in the back and the neck.8217;8217;

What are the most common problems?
8226; Chronic muscle pain, anywhere along the spine. Could be a tight shoulder, a nagging ache around the waist, tenseness at the base of the neck
8226; Early onset of spondylosis or degeneration of bones and soft tissues
8226; Degenerative disc disease, in which the nucleus at the centre of the disc starts drying up, affecting shock-absorbing capacity
8226; Muscle strains
8226; Fibrofascitis syndrome, or pain at the base of the neck and shoulder areas
8226; Carpal tunnel syndrome, or numbness of the figures
8226; Pain in the lower back
8226; Pain in the tendons of the hands
8226; Tennis elbow

Why do all these problems crop up?

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DO
8226; Use an adjustable chair with a high, hard and straight backrest
8226; Support your back and neck with a pillow
8226; Use a footstool so that the feet rest flat on the floor
8226; Put your feet up while sitting or sit cross-legged on the chair

DON8217;T
8226; Opt for those soft, low-level chairs
8226; Perch on the edge of
the seat
8226; Use sloping desks
8226; Let your knees be at a lower level than the thighs

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According to Dr Gulati, the main reasons are restricted mobility, wrong posture and unergonomic furniture.

8226; Lower mobility often results in wrong posture, putting pressure on the wrong areas of bones and soft tissues. It most commonly manifests as pain in the lower back
8226; Take a break. Walk around the office, up and down stairs and stretch those static muscles
8226; Wrong posture includes prolonged periods of looking down at work on the desk, reading on a flat surface calling for the neck and head to hang forward, working continuously on a computer using repetitive hand movements
8226; Maintain a 25deg; angle while reading or writing and the computer at eye level. For the hands, pen in a five-second break while using the keyboard or a five-minute break while using the mouse every hour
8226; Unergonomic seating makes for a negative incline the seat of the chair leans backwards, tilting the pelvis backwards and flattening the inward curve of the lumbar spine or base of spine
8226; A chair that allows the seat to be tilted forward by 5 to 15deg;, a position that maintains the curve in the lumbar spine by rotating the pelvis forward