It's no longer news that sitting is the new poisonous and its venoms include fatigue, neck pain, lower and upper back region pain, lumbar region discomfort, shortened hips and chest, and overstretching of the upper and mid-back.
Now, imagine working in an unhealthy environment where you have to stay glued to your chair for hours, tilting your head to concentrate on the desk jobs, straining your eyes to have a better view of the laptop screen, and others. There's almost no doubt that you'll be physically and mentally drained at the end of the day.
But do you even know that there are some methods you can adopt that'll make your work life easier and without the usual complications of seemingly endless neck and back aches? Yes, there are!
That's why our team took their time to extensively research the best relaxing poses or styles every office or remote worker should practice regularly. And after reading this piece, we hope that you'll have clarity on how to build a healthier working pattern for yourself.
These techniques will also help you relieve the daily stresses and tensions you've accumulated while working. Now, let's dive in!
Relaxed Sitting Position
Selecting the ideal chair can go a long way if your workplace or the nature of your work requires sitting for hours. So you need to be on the watch for a chair that gives your spine full support and maximum ease.
Chairs with comfortable back and neck support would also help you build and sustain a relaxed position. The beauty of these chairs is that you would feel no body pain or ache at the end of the day.
The secret is that your body would be in a calm pose throughout the work hours. Since our goal is to adopt a relaxed sitting posture, it'll also help to go for a chair with adjustable armrests and height settings. In other words, go for ergonomic furniture!
Now, you need to make sure that the height of the chair is adjusted to a perfect level where your thighs will be parallel to the floor of the room and your feet lying flat directly on the ground.
Therefore, it'll help to go for a reclining chair because you'll be able to relax and rock backward and forward as you work. That's killing two birds with a stone. These chairs will also help you switch your sitting posture as you deem fit and work while in that position.
As you change positions, you will feel less worn out when compared to those days of using an ordinary office chair with no contemporary features.
Are you tall? Then it follows that you won't feel great in portable chairs. Apart from being small, the chair might easily wear you out and you might be far away removed from being productive.
Therefore, your best chance also lies in a relaxed sitting position and you should go for a big and taller chair.
Luckily for you, we have different ergonomic chairs that fit everyone's preferences and body specifications. So you can get a perfect chair that will help you prevent these sitting challenges.
Desk Yoga Wrist and Finger Stretches
The first step here is to ensure your arms are fully extended over your head. After that, draw between 5 and 10 inches inward and outward using your wrists.
Follow this pattern as fast as possible by opening and relaxing your fingers and clenching the fists. The good here is that the excess tension in your body will be released.
After that, you can now position your arms right in front of you while the two palms are facing upward direction. Easily exert downward pressure on the two palms to relax the wrist.
Now, you should change the palms to face the downward direction for a counter stretch of the two forearms. Make sure you hold each strength for at least 5 to 10 breaths. And if you can go longer than 10 breaths, you can do that.
As you might have known, working a desk job might facilitate the build-up of tension in your fingers, wrists, and hands. Therefore, you need to practice this pose every day or any time you want to get some jobs done on the seat since it also promotes blood flow.
Relaxed Standing Posture
Do you prefer working while standing? Or you're a fan of maintaining the good vibes with small talk as you work? Then a standing desk should work perfectly for you.
Height-adjustable standing desks will help you maintain a relaxed standing pose and they will also serve as your ticket to be free from the dire consequences of excessive sitting while working.
As you maintain this standing position, you will be able to burn more calories and stay safe from the pangs of weight gain, heart problems, diabetes, and other sitting problems.
With a standing desk, you will also enjoy the fun that comes with walking around the room as you work. And if you're at the regular workplace, you can engage in talks with your counterpart without affecting your flow of productivity.
However, you need to note that investing in a standing chair is only a means to an end, not an end in itself. So you have to learn the perfect posture once you are using the standing desk.
Here are some of the ideas you need to bear in mind:
Maintaining Correct Standing Posture While Working
If you want to stand as you work, the simple and best way to do it is when you stand straight. And that's the only way the height-adjustable standing desk has also been programmed to work for you efficiently.
Therefore, we will suggest that you steer clear of leaning forward on the desk for a long time because this might lead to excruciating back ache.
Regular Transition From Sitting to Standing and Vice Versa
As much as we recommend standing, this shouldn't be construed as standing only. Therefore, you need to get your body used to both sitting and standing.
To do this, you can create a timetable for yourself where you can delineate tasks that you want to do while standing and those that need to be executed in your seat. Most importantly, you should ensure that you religiously follow the schedule.
Support Your Arms
If you have projected into the day that most of your work hours will be spent while standing, we will recommend that you get an object or elevated platform upon which you can lay your wrists and arms on.
But for improved and better results, you should ensure that you support the arms and wrists right on the desk.
Make Sure You Stand on an Elevated Platform
Just like when the neck and back ache and hurt after hours of sitting without proper support from the backrest and headrest respectively, your feet can also hurt when you stand for long hours.
So what's the way out? Easy-peasy! You need to put an anti-fatigue mat or a Vibration Plate Exercise Machine under your feet as you work.
This will help you reduce the accumulated pressure around and within your feet. Follow these ideas to maximize the advantages of a height-adjustable standing desk.
Desk Yoga Chaturanga
For Yoga Chaturanga, start with a standing position and make sure you're standing straight. Position your hands almost shoulder-width separate on that corner of the stable and sturdy standing desk.
Start to walk your feet backward until your chest is in a diagonal alignment with the floor. Breathe in deeply as you delve into Chaturanga and ensure that your ribs and elbows are at a 90° angle.
Breathe out deeply as you push upward back to the starting point. Repeat the process 8 to 12 times so that the muscles in and around your arm will be fully awakened.
The Desk Yoga Chaturanga also relaxes and stimulates all the muscles around your neck.
Relaxed Hand Poses
Now that we have explored the standing and sitting poses, we should also consider the perfect position that conforms to typing.
Oh, you're probably wondering if and why there's a particular way you need to type in your home office. Well, that's because endless typing without observing the relaxed hand position might cause muscle pain or strains.
And a recent study confirmed that more than 40% of office workers whose work requires consistent writing or typing suffer from wrist injuries. But you don't have anything to worry about,
Hence, here are some tried-and-true ways you can adopt to reduce the risks of these injuries.
Make sure your wrists are straight while typing instead of bending them.
Make sure the keyboard is kept below your elbow level and they have an angle of 90 to 110 degrees.
The screen of the computer should not be too close to your eyes. Ideally, your eyes need to be on a direct level with the screen's top.
Reduce the pressure you often apply while hitting and clanging the keyboard keys.
Your feet should always be flat on the ground and your back always straight. No room for bending, leaning, or, fidgeting.
Ensure those essential office accessories that you'll need are always within your reach. For example, your smartphone and mouse should not be too far from you.
If you follow these tips, you won't have to unnecessarily strain your muscles. Remember that the goal is to maintain your body in a relaxed position all through the day.
And you don't forget that practicing all these tips without taking breaks at work does you no good. Therefore, you need to create time to get up and move around your home office if you're working from home or walk over to your coworker's desk if you are in the office.
Through that, your productivity and agility will peak.
Conclusion
We hope that these relaxing styles and yoga poses can bring you back to work with renewed strength, grace, and productivity. Good luck!
