Working from Home: How to Avoid Back Pain

Nowadays, many of us have shifted to a work-from-home setup. Because of this, we’ve also seen an increase in individuals experiencing back pain.

Office ergonomics are designed to help our body adapt to spending hours a day working. However, since we’re working from home now, it may be more challenging to have a spine-friendly workspace, leading to back pain.

Here are some helpful tips on how you can prevent back pain as you work from home.

Tips to Avoid Back Pain

Keep the Neck Straight

Whether you are looking through work documents or staring at your screen when working from home, make sure that whatever you are looking at is at comfortable and ideal viewing height.

If your computer screen is at too much of an angle, you would be inclined to tilt your neck.

This can bring you neck pain as you swivel. A laptop or monitor stand would work best for this situation.

The same goes for reviewing or reading documents. If they are laid flat on a table, the tendency is to move your head up and down always.

You can get a standing document stand or holder, which you can keep by your computer for more comfortable viewing.

When we work from home, we obviously don’t have the same work setup as we do in the office. However, there are some tools we can get to make working from home more manageable for us.

Make Sure that the Keyboard and Mouse Are at a Comfortable Level

If you got a laptop stand to raise it at your eye level, use a separate keyboard and mouse for controls. Your arms and forearms must also be at a comfortable height. This means that the arms and forearms must be positioned close to your body as you use the mouse.

The nerves in the arm run down through the shoulder, elbow, and wrist.

When the arm is leveled to your side, it prevents pinched nerves from happening.

The more stretch it out, the higher the chances of straining your neck or shoulder, and compressing your nerves.

Take Advantage of Voice Commands

Most computers, laptops, and phones are equipped with voice command software. This innovative tool is good for most tasks we need to do, such as text and emails.

Take advantage of this feature so you can give your wrists, arms, and hands a rest from time to time as you work from home.

Keep Your Feet Flat While Sitting Down

We all know proper posture is vital. However, when we work from home, we tend to forget about that.

One helpful tip to help with posture is to keep our feet flat on the ground as we sit. If you just let your feet dangle, or if you pull your feet under the chair, you are only putting extra pressure under the thighs.

This restricts blood flow to the feet and legs, which can then lead to deep vein thrombosis.

Avoid Over-Sitting

Today’s modern jobs entail working with computers for extended periods. This can then lead to over-sitting. As the name suggests, it’s sitting for long periods without standing up or doing anything else.

You may think you wouldn’t fall prey to this.

However, when you are too focused and engrossed in our work, you don’t realize that you haven’t really moved or stood up in a long time.

That’s not good for the muscles.

Thus, it’s essential to stand up, stretch, and get moving at least once every 30 minutes. Aside from the physical help, it can also help you mentally.

Taking short breaks can give your mind a break, as well as your back and legs. However, there’s also such a thing as too much standing – which can strain your legs and feet.

The idea is not to remain too sedentary as you go about your day working from home. Rotate between sitting and standing.

Relieve Back Pain and Get Adjusted at Heart of Texas Chiropractic

If you are suffering from back pain, please don’t hesitate to contact us for an appointment.

At Heart of Texas Chiropractic, we aim to help you gain optimum health and wellness.

Whether it’s alleviating back pain from working from home, getting your spine adjusted, or for overall health improvement, chiropractic care offers many health benefits.

Learn more about how it can help you by getting in touch with us.