Exercise at work? Yes it’s possible.
Have you been so busy lately that you feel you can’t even have the time to do your daily exercise? Do you sit for long hours facing the computer and doing lots of paper work? Have you ever had a stiff neck, back pain and wrist pain? Not to mention that a lot of people have poor posture, a work station that doesn’t fit and is suffering from stress to add to these body pains. These are just some of the health hazards that you could be suffering from due to your office work.
Our bodies are used to moving. Sitting on your computer chair for the whole day would surely make a big adjustment to your body. It’s not bad to take a break for a minute or two. I’m sure that with these simple exercises that you can do in the office, you would surely feel more relaxed, efficient and more productive in your work.
Here are some of these exercises:
STAND UP
You can stand up and drink water from the pantry or just stand up for a few minutes just to give your legs some work.
STRETCH
Stretching can relive stress because it makes you feel more relaxed. You can stretch by raising your arms to the air while you’re seated at the computer chair or you can press your back against the wall.
REST EYES
Give your eyes a rest. Long hours of working on the computer affect the way you see through your eyes. As time pass by, you begin to have very tired eyes in the afternoon. Believe it or not no matter how many carrots you eat to prevent you from wearing those glasses, prolonged exposure of the eyes to the computer screen brings out difficulty in seeing clearly. So why don’t you close your eyes for a while and relax. You can also rub your hands together and then put those warm hands on top of each eye.
Here are also some of the questions that you have to ask yourself.
1. Is your computer screen and keyboard at the right height for your eyes and hands? Do you have a comfortable chair with enough back support?
Figure 1: Proper user position and support
2. Is there proper lighting with no glare?
3. Do you have an organized workstation that fits you?
We should always keep in mind that taking care of ourselves is more important than the deadlines that we have to meet. You can talk to your manager or human resource officer if you need to make changes with your work station.
Images from (http://www.cehs.siu.edu/occupational/work_station_ergonomics.pdf)
Written By: Angela Nikki A. Robas