The Office Movement Aka. How to Stay Healthy in the Office

By Péter Makra

Header Image by macrovector on Freepik

We love to share our knowledge and improve each other

That is why we have this series of presentations in the office about office ergonomics. Yes series, this is just the beginning, a general introduction to the topic. So this is a summary of the initial presentation. Later we will have more specific examples.

Who are you to tell me what to do

I am not telling you what to do but recommend ways to keep your joints and bones and muscles healthy, based on a lot of research and my own experience. I have been both a practitioner and a trainer in many different disciplines including

Just to name a few. My not a lot more detailed introduction can be found here.

OK enough blabla give me the real deal

Sure thing here is the presentation:

That won’t tell you much right? It is more like a guideline for me to speak about the same thing from different perspectives for 30 minutes. Let me summarize it here:

See the squatting kid on the first slide?

Can you do the same? Are you sure? Double check your ankles, are the falling in or they are correctly in lines with your knees? Or your knees are falling inwards too? Are your heels on the ground (barefoot, not in raised heel shoes)? Is your back straigt? Can you look up easily?

If any of the questions are not a unquestionable yes you are prone to have some problems from the office-desk environment.

We were born with the ability to be like the kid in the image. And we slowly learned to lose that. By sitting in school, by sitting in cars, on the bus, at office desks, etc. Your body is becoming better in things you practice. You practiced to develop back pain for years.

If you haven’t peaked to the 4th slide yet

It is the time now. As I said “for years” just above, it is clear what we are trying to fight here is not happening quickly but steadily. We need to get rid of the bad habits. Focusing now on the habit of being stationary in one position. Getting too comfortable in a position, so we are looking forward to getting back into that exact same position. Which only tells our body to slowly morph into that shape.

Having some back pain may be the most “visible” and common effect of a bad posture. And it is really easy to underestimate or neglect a pain in -an allegedly insignificant- body part. However that small problem can have a butterfly effect.

Sidenote here a book recommendation The Align Method by Aaron Alexander Where the author explains how the connection between mood and body posture a two way street. Meaning when you are sad for example you tend to curl up. But if you curl up your body will interpolate the position as a sign to be sad. Standing tall makes you happier, more confident, not just healthier in the posture.

Simple example the already mentioned inward falling ankle during a squat. Which makes your knee compensate, which makes your hip compensate, which makes your core muscles uneven. Everything is connected. Keep your house of cards stable.

The FMS srceening is a good way to find problematic points, many of our collegaues signed up to make a test. We will gather the results suggest follow up steps, and share the outcome and the feedback from the process in the following parts of this series of posts.

Now you reached the DEMO slide

Sorry this is something I can’t put in text, with a volunteer we demonstrated how seemingly distant things in your body can effect each other, and went trough some recommendations of standing desk setups.

If you want to see this part as well, drop us a message and become a devie

Don’t take the joke slides below the solution too seriously

But to keep it real what did we learn? There is no one chair there is no one magic position standing, or classic desk which will make your posture better. Your enemy is not moving. Locking out your joints in a stationary position. Resting in that position for a long time. And “suddenly” you realize you are stuck there forever.

The key is to variate your positions. Either in one place or moving to different stations. If you read the recommended book you may go to the ground too. Don’t be afraid to try new things.

Tips

  • At a standing desk you can try to place your keyboads at the edge of the desk and stand a bit further, this prevents you to lean on the desk rest your elbow on the desk and your head on your arm.
  • Use your mouse for the other hand for a shorter time.
  • Get a small water bottle, when it gets empty get up and walk to a possibly quite far kitchen.

On the next slides you see some stock images about more or less useful ergonomic solutions you see all of them are non stationary. Then you can do some streching directly at your desk or have a separate section in your office to some “offce yoga”. Of course it is very much recommended to do similar activities outside the office too.

Follow up

We will continue with

  • more specific examples what problems people have
  • and what exercises can we do in the office
  • If we need any equipment for them,
  • and discussing the FMS results and feedbacks

Till then

Keep calm and move