Does your back hurt in office? Here's how to treat it

If your back hurts in office, you're probably not sitting right. (Duh!)

People have been known to suffer from all sorts of dreadful ailments. Be careful of the big bad wolf: Ankylosing Spondylitis
Unless you're a posture fiend, ever mindful of the slouch, chances are, you're sitting all wrong. You're probably also standing all wrong - and not just in a sloppy, body language kind of way. But it's not just you, if that's any consolation. Most of us strain our necks, mess up our backs, and don't know what to make of people who spout things about desktop-to-eye level.
To talk a bit about ergonomics, we caught up with Alan McDonald, managing director at Humanscale. The company designs "ergonomic products that improve health and comfort at work". It's all about ergonomics (and not ruining your body while at work). What is ergonomics, you say? In McDonald's words, "Ergonomics is the science of fitting the task to the worker, to maximise productivity and minimise fatigue, discomfort or injury." Some bits of a chat...
It used to be that people paid a lot more attention to their carriage, to the whole stomach-in, chest-out, back-straight thing. What is your assessment of people's posture in the UAE?
Technology is the overriding factor that has changed the way we hold ourselves. Next time you are in a restaurant or coffee shop, look around you at those people who are using devices. They will be moving their bodies into position so they can best view their device, not the other way around. Hunched shoulders, leaning over tables, all because the phone or laptop screen is easier to see. This is because vision drives posture. Vision always wins.
In your experience, what's the worst posture? And the most common wrong postures?
Any static posture is, over time, a bad posture. Our bodies are designed to move. If you consider the working environment, you will usually see a number of people crouched over their laptops or desktop keyboards. Experts call it 'The Turtle'. Those are usually the people who complain of bad backs or discomfort over a period of time. It's probably the most common issue we see in the workplace where the right tools are not provided.
In your work life, do you find yourself correcting people about the eye-to-computer angle/ distance a lot?
It's an important message that we broadcast constantly. If the user's computer screens are mounted on the stand they came with, that user will simply lean forward to see the screen. This is why we see people perched on the edge of their chairs or bent over with no support. Ideally, they should be in a working recline with the ability to move the screen towards them at the correct height and distance. This is why a monitor arm is so important. It also aids collaboration and increases desk space.
Can you talk about the freedom chair, and the liberty chair? What are they and what do these chairs have to do with lumbar support?
The Freedom chair was designed by Niels Diffrient. He wanted to design a chair that could automatically adapt to the user, so they could move freely from posture to posture. He removed the seldom-used recline levers and back tension knobs, creating a truly ergonomic task chair. Freedom uses the sitter's own body weight to automatically adjust recline support. The armrests move up and down together, staying with you during recline for continuous support and comfort. Unlike other chair designs, Freedom's armrests are attached to the back of the chair to ensure synchronous use.
The Liberty Task chair was Niels' follow-up to Freedom. It's an intelligent, minimal aesthetic mesh task chair. The back is formed by combining three panels of non-stretch mesh material in the same way a tailor combines multiple pieces of fabric to stitch a shirt. Its contours are made to custom fit, providing automatic lumbar support.
Liberty, like Freedom, was engineered to automatically adjust to whoever sits in it, instantly accommodating each user regardless of size and weight.
Are there any figures for the people in the UAE who suffer from issues because of badly designed furniture and poor posture?
There are no hard and fast numbers for the UAE. We do know that in mature markets, roughly 20-25 per cent of absenteeism from work is attributed to back pain. In our region, where office furniture is more commoditised and true high-value ergonomic chairs are considered a luxury, we might expect that number to be bigger. The good news is, that there are new standards emerging in building and interior design regarding wellness and wellbeing in the workplace. As a result, we should see more focus on the health and wellbeing of employees from an ergonomic perspective. It's an investment in people after all, a company's most valuable asset.
What's a broad, ergonomic tip for life? Give us a tip. Say, do you always take the extra legroom seat in an air craft?
I would, if I was seven feet tall! My tip on planes is to always take the aisle seat in the centre row. That way you can stand up, stretch and walk whenever you want. You'll also only have one person squeezing past you instead of two.
Nivriti likes 'human-interest' stories and has a thing for the quirky, oddball stuff
nivriti@khaleejtimes.com