The vast majority of contemporary occupations are sedentary. Aside from quitting our jobs, there’s not a lot we can do about the lack of physical activity in the environment where we spend the majority of our waking hours. We have previously discussed ways to undo a bad chair day, and ways to set up a workstation to minimise the negative effects. There is however a new wave of products aimed at creating a less injurious working environment.
Termed ‘active workstations’, they revolve around the premise that movement should be involved in all we do, with extended periods of sitting minimised.
Active workstations allow the user to manipulate the height of the desk, thus allowing work to be completed in a standing position. If I may steal from a previous post, extended sitting causes the following unfavourable deviations from our body’s natural ‘plumb line’:
- The ears are forward of the line, with the chin pushed forward.
- The shoulders are also forward of the line, caused by rounding of the thoracic spine (upper back).
- The pelvis is rolled backwards (a posterior pelvic tilt for my fellow anatomy junkies).
- The hips are closed (there’s an angle at your hips, unlike the ‘open’ hip angle you would get when standing).
- The knees are bent (tightening the muscles down the back of your legs – the ‘posterior chain’).
By standing to work instead of sitting, you are able to counteract these unfavourable positions.
The problem arises however when your body is not able to maintain a sufficient degree of neutral spine to stand for extended periods. In this case, a change in your external environment will not suffice. Internal factors, principally muscle tightness and weakness, must also be corrected to allow the ideal positions that an active workstation facilitates.
