WFH Injury Prevention
In 2020, as we entered lockdown and people abruptly transitioned from office work to working from home, I quickly realised that the sudden change would likely lead to a spike in musculoskeletal injuries due to poor desk setups.
In fact many people went from working at a nice desk with a large screen and a good chair to sitting slouched on their sofa with their laptop. At the time I put together a virtual “working from home injury prevention appointment” which I did in exchange for donations to charities which were supporting the COVID-19 efforts. This was very successful so I thought it would be useful to put together a blog post covering how best to look after our musculoskeletal health whilst working from home.
Common work-from-home injuries
When we think of injuries, we usually think of an event which causes us damage, like going over an ankle or bumping our heads off the cupboard door. These would be examples of a single event injury where the one event carries enough force to do some kind of damage. The other way we can injure ourselves is by doing a very small thing repeatedly over time, which leads to pain and disfunction. These are the kind of injuries that are common when we work from a poor working environment.
The most common kinds of injuries effect the neck and upper back from poor seated posture, and the lower back and hips, typically from inadequate chair support and prolonged sitting.
Setting up an ergonomic home office
The first thing we want to look at when setting up a working space at home is a desk. Arguably the best kind of desks out there are standing desks. These are desks which can move up and down to allow a person to work both from a standing position or a seated position. It is not that standing is inherently better than sitting, but the ability to move from one position to another allows the static pressures on your body to move from one place to another. If working for a long period of time this allows you to spread the load to different parts of the body. Some of these desks are electric but tend to be more expensive. You can get ones which have a counterweight which are much better value.
The next thing to consider is a good desk chair. Now, if you look online you will find extraordinary expensive desk chairs which are packed full of gimmicky and unnecessary features. Don’t be tempted by these, instead look for a chair that has a high back, can be adjusted for height, and with armrests that can also be adjusted. An adjustable lumbar support can be handy but not essential as you can use cushions and pillows to provide adequate support. A top tip when looking for a chair is to include gamers chairs into the search, these are for people who spend a lot of time at a computer as well and they can often be a little cheaper. You may have seen advice to sit on an exercise ball or a kneeling chair, and whilst these can be good when sitting for short periods of time they are generally bad for long stints at a computer.
The last thing to think about is where you put your monitor. First of all, if you are working from a laptop, invest in a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and raise your laptop up on a pile of books or laptop stand. The laptop screen or desktop monitor should be facing right in front of you (not off to the side) and the top of it should be at or just below eye level. Make sure that it is not too far away either, this helps avoid the temptation to lean in which can encourage poor neck posture. And speaking of posture…
On posture: Tips and techniques
…so! How should we sit at our desks anyway? I think by now we have all seen that diagram comparing one person with rubbish posture at their desk with a big red X and another person with perfect posture with a big green tick. Well, let me tell you that whilst this is generally true, if you sit in that perfect posture you are still going to get pain eventually. There is no one posture that you can sit in indefinitely without pain! That said, lets discuss best practice.
Head and neck – ideally your head should be on the back of the chair. If your chair does not go this high up, then think about getting your ears more in line with your shoulders. As we get engrossed in what we are doing we tend to let our heads pop forward and that puts a huge strain on the neck and causes you to slouch the upper back.
Elbows – Keep your elbows at 90-110 degrees and by your side or slightly in front of you. Adjust your arm rests so that you don’t have to hitch your shoulders up to lean on them.
Lower back –The most important thing here is not to slouch down and forward on your chair. Sit with your back against the back of the chair. Some people find a little lumbar support with a cushion makes a big difference, and others find this actually causes some pain. This is quite an individual thing so run some experiments and see what works for your body.
Hips and knees – The angle at your hips and knees should be a little over 90 degrees. This allows the hips to sit in a more open position which prevents pinching.
This is, generally speaking, the best posture to sit in. But what monster can achieve this for any decent length of time! As I am writing this, I am sat with a leg tucked under me a little and I am slightly leaning on my left arm. Am I worried about this hurting me? Absolutely not. The truth is, when thinking about that diagram I described earlier, it is more important to avoid the big red x than it is to achieve the big green tick. What I mean by that is, if you are sitting at a laptop and your head is popping forward, and your shoulders are hitched, and your arms are reaching out for your keyboard, and your butt is close to the front of your chair, and your hips are hyper flexed then I can almost guarantee you are going to get some kind of injury you will need help for. But when you have got your desk set up and you are sitting properly, it is totally fine to lean to one side for a little while, slouch a little every now and then, tuck your leg in for a little bit or sometimes stand if you have a standing desk. By doing that you migrate those static forces that put pressure on your joints, ligaments and muscles from one area of your body to another. You can share the load (shout out to those who heard Samwise Gamgee saying that in their head) across your body, giving others a little break. And speaking of breaks….
Breaks and stretching
Take breaks. Breaks are super important for your mind, but also your body. When you do take a break, stand up, move around and stretch your legs a little. Raise your arms above your head, and, if you can, even go for a walk. Think: “motion is lotion”.
Some find microbreaks work really well, and that’s 60 seconds of resting and stretching every half an hour. Others find microbreaks too disruptive and find longer, less frequent breaks work best. Find what works best for you and commit to them. Remember that in an office space, you would have had to commute to work, change location for meetings in meeting rooms, spend some time schmoosing in the coffee room etc. These little bits of movement throughout the day are quite good for your body and less common when working from home. Be mindful of this and consider little things you can do like standing up during phone calls and going for a short walk at the end of the working day.
Breaks are a great time to stretch as well. Some great ones are:
Pec stretches – Stand at a door frame and put your forearm against it so that both your elbow and shoulder is at 90 degrees. Turn your body away from the side you are stretching, and you should feel it around your pectoral muscles. You can play with the angle of the arm if you find that it is hurting the back of the shoulder or upper back.
Upper trapezius stretches – The upper trapezius is the big muscle that sits between your neck and your shoulders and is responsible for the shrugging motion. You can stretch this by tilting your head to one side and then gently pulling your head further with your hand. Remember to be gentle! We are not looking to yank our heads of our shoulders here.
Gluteus medius stretch – This is a stretch for a muscle in your bottom. Whilst lying down, you can bring one leg up with your knee bent and hold onto it with both hands. Pull the knee towards the opposite shoulder and you should feel a nice stretch around the side of your bottom.
To get the benefit, hold these for 30 seconds at a time, and do them a few times per day. I appreciate you might not have the time to do all of them, so if that is the case, one or two is better than none at all!
Conclusion
Working from home offers many benefits and some find the liberation from an office space very rewarding. However, it can come with some risks if ergonomics and postures are not addressed. By making some basic changes to your working environment and working on bad habits you can drastically reduce the chances of getting an injury associated with working from home. I hope you have found this blog useful. If you are currently nursing an injury brought about by working from home then let us help you get through it by contacting us here.
