Preventing Back Pain When You’re Working From Home
Category: Back Pain | Author: Stefano Sinicropi
If you’re like a lot of Americans, you may find yourself trying to conduct work from home for the foreseeable future as the nation continues to practice social distancing to deal with COVID-19. While you may find it a bit harder to be productive at your new office, especially if your kids are in the house with you, this new situation can also be hard on your back. Below, we share some tips for helping to prevent spine pain if you’re working from home.
Spine Health Tips When Working From Home
If you’re going to be working from home for a while, keep these tips in mind so your back doesn’t get out of whack.
- Supportive Chair – Our top tip for preventing back pain when working from home is to find a supportive chair. Support is more important than comfort, so find something that supports your spine instead of something you sink into, like the couch or an armchair. Sinking into these spots for hours on end while you work will put a lot of stress on your lumbar spine, so find a supportive option.
- Exercise – While you may not be able to do this when you’re on the clock, set aside some time to exercise each day. Odds are you’ll have a little extra time on your hands since you won’t be commuting, so use this time to work up a sweat. Go for a run, ride your stationary bicycle or do some morning yoga. Exercise will help to strengthen your spine and get healthy blood pumping throughout your body.
- Move – You may not be able to exercise on the clock, but there’s a good chance you’ll be able to move a bit. Take that conference call standing up, or walk around the living room a bit while you’re cleaning out your inbox. Standing and walking through certain work tasks can really help to take some of the stress and pressure off your spine, and it also helps to increase blood flow throughout your body. You’ll probably find that you can do more work from your feet than you originally thought, so strive to move around a bit as you’re working from home. And even if you need to be sitting to get your work done, stand up and walk around for a couple minutes every hour to help displace stress.
- Eat Healthy – If you bring a lunch to work, you may choose healthier options because you’ll be eating in front of co-workers, or at a minimum, you won’t be able to run back to your fridge if you finish your lunch and are still hungry. If you’re working from home, you can eat what you want, when you want, and that can be a recipe for weight gain. That extra weight will only be more stress that your spine has to handle, so do right by your body and your spine and strive to eat healthy when you’re working from home. You don’t need to be afraid of stinking up the break room with fish or vegetables, so indulge in these healthy options without fear when working from home. Also, make it a point to drink plenty of water to keep your spine moving optimally!
If you keep these four tips in mind, we’re confident that you and your spine will make it through your remote work sessions in one piece. And if pain arises in your neck or spine, give Dr. Sinicropi’s office a call. We’re here to help with all of your spinal needs. Give our office a call today at (651) 430-3800.
