Reduce pain and prevent injury by improving your workspace

Pursuit Physiotherapy

Published

6 years ago

7 minute read

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How to optimize your workstation and posture to prevent pain and injury.

In the modern work world many of us spend our days sitting at a desk in front of the computer. The human body however was not designed for this sedentary lifestyle and will get stiff and sore from lack of movement. Even if you are active outside of work, sitting at a desk with poor setup and slouched posture can give you chronic aches and pains or exacerbate existing injuries.

Some common complaints that could be related to your posture include:

Neck pain and stiffness
Headaches
Numbness or tingling in the arms or hands
Shoulder pain
Upper back stiffness
Low back pain
Sciatica

Making some simple ergonomic adjustments to your workstation can help you feel more comfortable during and after your work day:

Ensure you have a good chair that is comfortable for you and adjusted properly. Ideally you should be sitting with your buttocks to the back of the chair so that you are leaning against the backrest. You may need to adjust the lumbar support or add a rolled up towel or small pillow behind the small of your back to support your spine’s natural curve.
Sit with both feet flat on the floor and the knees bent to about 90 degrees. Adjust your chair height accordingly or add a stool under your feet if you can’t touch the ground.
Adjust your computer monitor so that your screen is at eye level. This can be as easy as putting a book underneath to raise it up. You should not have to look down or strain to see your computer.
Have your keyboard at a comfortable height so that your elbows are bent to approximately 90 degrees and you are not reaching forward. If you have a laptop, consider using an external keyboard so that you type in a neutral position.
Adapt your workstation to fit you. Move things that you use frequently throughout the day (such as the phone, files, etc.) to a location that is easy to access so that you don’t have to reach or move awkwardly to get to them. This will help you avoid sprains and strains from poor movement patterns.

Even with the perfect ergonomic setup, poor posture can catch up to you. Some common habits to AVOID are:

Crossing your knees. Sitting in this position twists your pelvis and lumbar spine, putting extra strain on the muscles, joints, and ligaments. While it may feel good temporarily, you probably need to keep switching positions to stay comfortable because your body is not in a neutral position.
Perching on the front of your seat. While you may think it is good to try to hold yourself up straight without using the backrest it is not realistic to do this for an 8 hour day. Your postural muscles will fatigue quickly and you will end up slouching and feeling sore.
Leaning your shoulders forward and head down to look at your computer. Think of all the extra strain you are putting on your neck and shoulder to hold your body in this position! Try to remind yourself to sit up tall – Think shoulders down and back and head up. Your spine should feel long and supported, but not rigid.

It is also important to stay active throughout the day and break up long periods of sitting in one position. Here are some ideas to keep you limber throughout the day:

· Set an alarm to get up and move every 20-30 minutes. This could be as simple as standing up to do some stretches, taking a quick walk around the office, a washroom break, or going to get some water. Interrupted sitting is the best way to prevent tightness from building up in your spine and soft tissues

· Stretch at your desk. There are lots of simple movements and stretches you can do as you work to keep your body feeling good. Try to remember to move a little bit at least every 15-20 minutes. Try stretching your neck side to side, moving your head gently in different directions, rolling your shoulders backwards, squeezing your shoulder blades together, stretching your legs out in front of you, and moving your feet and ankles.

We hope these tips have been helpful and have given you ideas that you can incorporate into your daily life. Do not hesitate to call us and make an appointment. An in depth one-on-one assessment with one of our physiotherapists will help address your specific needs for injury prevention or management.

Written by Stephanie Connolly

Click to visit Pursuit Physiotherapy.

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Education

Solar eclipse school closures underscore impact of learning loss

Published on April 15, 2024

Todayville

From the Fraser Institute

By Michael Zwaagstra

Instead of making every effort to protect instructional time and ensure that schools remain open, students are being sent home for ever more dubious reasons.

Schools are closed out of an “abundance of caution.” No doubt you’ve heard this phrase many times over the last few years. It was commonly used during the pandemic when provincial governments closed schools for months on end—even after it was widely known that COVID-19 posed little risk to most children.

Ontario schools were closed for 135 days during the pandemic, more than any other province. Parents and teachers are still trying to recover from this enormous learning loss. Clearly, this was one situation where an abundance of caution caused more harm than it prevented.

Sadly, it appears that provincial officials and school board administrators haven’t learned from their mistakes. Instead of making every effort to protect instructional time and ensure that schools remain open, students are being sent home for ever more dubious reasons.

For example, school boards across Ontario cancelled classes on April 8, the day of the solar eclipse. Apparently administrators felt there was too great a risk that students might look at the sun during the eclipse and damage their eyes. No doubt more than a few of them glanced at the sun while sitting at home that day. However, there was no need for the school closures to be as total as the eclipse. If they were really that concerned, school officials could have kept students indoors or simply altered the dismissal times.

Initially, the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) took a common sense approach by stating that schools would remain open and teachers would use the eclipse as a learning opportunity for students. Then, only days before the eclipse, the WRDSB suddenly reversed itself and said their schools would indeed close on April 8, and students would have the opportunity to engage in “asynchronous remote learning” instead.

This decision sent the unfortunate message that WRDSB trustees are incapable of standing up to pressure from people who think that schools must close at the slightest sign of real or presumed danger. As for the notion that remote learning was an adequate substitute, our experience during the pandemic showed that for most parents and students, remote learning was thin gruel indeed.

As a further sign of how far paranoia has crept into the education system, some teacher unions demanded they too should be able to work from home during the eclipse. For example, Jeff Sorensen, president of the Hamilton local teacher union, said, “If it’s not safe for children [to be at school], then it’s not safe for adults.”

The union representing Toronto’s Catholic teachers made a similar request. In a memo to its members, local union president Deborah Karam said the union was “intensifying our efforts” to ensure that teachers be allowed to complete their professional development activities at home that day. Surprisingly, no union leader has yet explained why teachers would be less likely to look at the sun while at home than at school.

Of course, school boards must focus on education while also looking out for the wellbeing of students. But there’s more to student wellbeing than simply shielding them from all perceived risks. Extended school closures cause considerable harm to students because they lead to significant learning loss.

By normalizing the practise of closing schools at the slightest sign of danger, real or perceived, we risk raising a generation of young people who lack the ability to do a proper risk assessment. Life itself comes with risk and if we all took the same approach to driving a car that school boards take to school closures, would never set foot in a vehicle again.

Ontario students had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience a solar eclipse in an educational environment, guided by their teachers. While some parents no doubt taught their children about the eclipse, many others had to be at work.

By closing schools out of an “abundance of caution,” school boards sent the message that school is not a place where unique educational events can be experienced together. Students should be in school during events such as the eclipse, not sitting at home.

If we’re going to exercise an abundance of caution, let’s be a lot more cautious about the risks of closing schools at the drop of a hat.

Author:

Michael Zwaagstra

Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute

Education

Red Deer Public Schools facing million dollar deficit due to inflation and carbon tax

Published on April 12, 2024

Red Deer Public Schools

Draft Three Year Education Plan

While the full Division Three-Year Education Plan will be presented to the Board next month, in order to facilitate strategic planning at both the school and Division levels, the Board was presented with the
proposed Strategies and Performance Measures that will set the strategic direction for Red Deer Public Schools in the coming years.

The highest priority for the Division is the success of every student. For the upcoming school year we have organized our strategic work around the following Alberta Education Assurance Domains:

Student Growth & Achievement
Teaching and Leading
Learning Supports
Governance

The fifth Alberta Education Assurance Domain, Local and Societal Context, encompasses all of the
aforementioned areas. Ten proposed strategies, which will be used to guide Red Deer Public‘s work, as well as 14 proposed performance measures, were also presented. PLAN

Budget Review and Schedule

Red Deer Public Schools is in the process of reviewing its budget for the 2024/2025 school year.
The Division’s budget totals $131 million. With a current projected deficit of $1 million, the state of the Division’s reserves will be about $2.8 million as of Aug. 31, 2024 year end.

Projected student enrolment is also similar for the 2024/2025 school year at about 10,800 FTE students. One challenge this year is that there has not been additional funding provided for inflationary cost increases such as benefit costs, carbon tax, supplies and materials and utilities.

The Board is expected to approve the 2024/2025 budget on May 8, with submission to Alberta Education on May 31. BUDGET

Field Studies Approved

The Board of Trustees approved two Field Studies for students at Hunting Hills High School and Gateway Christian School.

Hunting Hills students enroled in the Chinese Language and Culture courses will travel to China in April 2025. Students will be immersed in the Chinese language and learn to appreciate Chinese culture.

As well, in April 2025, students part of the Co-Impact Team from Gateway Christian School will travel to the Dominican Republic to take part in a number of service activities.