Healthy Living > Physical health > Pain-free tips for working from home
Blog Article | | | By The Simplyhealth Team | 19 May 2020 |
Working from home has become a thing. A huge, relevant, undeniable thing. Most of us are having to find new ways of thinking, adapting to an unfamiliar office environment since the coronavirus outbreak. We're the same and, hopefully, these tips can help you develop healthy ways of working from the comfort of your home.
Before you begin working from home, take some time to review your surroundings. Where possible, avoid working in your bedroom. You want to be doing your best to keep your working and resting areas separate. Allocate an area of your home as your dedicated working space and spend some time getting your set-up sorted, ensuring that you have everything in place for that comfortable work environment. Consider things like:
Your working environment is set up and ready to go, what's next?
It's important to pay close attention to your working position as you adjust to your new set-up. While sitting at your desk, monitor your body positioning throughout the day and make a conscious effort to correct any poor posture and sitting habits. Slouching isn't good, and you'll want to reduce the risk of developing pain or discomfort.
Look out for, and correct, these examples of bad posture:
Source: www.nhs.uk
Tip: Frequent stretching can help improve your posture and loosen stiff muscles. Try some exercises to strengthen your back and chest, like planks, bridges and chest stretches. Our friends at Nuffield Health have been chatting with their personal trainers, creating fitness plans for those at home.
England Rugby's Dylan Hartley knows quite a bit about exercises that improve muscle comfort. Watch the 1-minute video below and discover the little routine he uses to prepare his body each day.
If you're used to working in an office environment, you may find that while working from home, you're walking shorter distances and having fewer reasons to get up and move around. This is because you're attending conference calls instead of walking to meeting rooms and you're probably set up a lot closer to the kitchen and toilet.
Structuring your routine can help you stay active while working from home. Identify the opportunities where you can introduce exercise in your day. Get regular breaks from sitting at your workspace to stretch and move around, and look to build these into your working day. Some of our suggestions would be:
We've got you covered if you're looking for tips on how to stay healthy and keep active during lockdown.
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