There are many types of office chairs, some of which are more comfortable than others. It’s important of course to pick quality chairs for an office. If you’re running a business in Queensland, for instance, and you want to find a range of office chairs to suit your Brisbane office, then you might favour those with good back support since your staff spend long hours sitting at their desks throughout the day.
More important than the exact chairs you pick is ensuring that you and your team members know how to stay healthy while spending so much of their day in an office chair. Below are a few tips in that regard.
Tip 1: Posture is Key
The sad fact of life is that sitting around too much is bad for our overall health, but sitting with poor posture is even worse. Therefore, one of the first things you should do to stay healthy in your office chair is to maintain the correct posture. You should be sitting with your feet flat on the floor or resting on a footrest. Some sit with their feet pointed down resting on the area below their toes, which can get very painful after some time. The front of your chair should not be pressing against the back of your knees.
As you sit, your back should be straight, your elbows close to your body and your lower back pressed against the backrest of your chair. There should be minimal bend at your wrist if you’re typing on a computer keyboard, and the monitor should be about an arm’s length away from you. Your eye level should be about in line with the top of your computer monitor, or just below it.
Tip 2: Stretch and Move While At Your Desk
We’ll come to moving away from the desk periodically in the next point, but first people should be aware of the benefits of doing small stretches and exercises while you’re still at your desk. Moving and stretching your legs, lifting your calves and knees from the ground, as well as rotating your arms and shoulders will do a lot to help promote blood and nutrient flow to all of your muscles. This is important if you’re using a computer all day because the body position while using a computer is typically very static.
Tip 3: Get Up and Move Around
There has to be a time — typically at least once in the course of each hour, where you should stand up from your desk and fit in some proper movement. You could go to the water cooler to top up your drinking bottle, or go to the bathroom, or simply do a lap of the office or even walk outside and do a quick lap of the building if your environment allows for that. Getting outdoors even for just a few minutes is also a nice refresher anyway.
Most important is just to get up and walk about. Working your legs, your glutes, your knees and calves will promote better circulation and help to start burning off those breakfast and lunch calories (see below).
Tip 4: Lighten the Eating
If you work in a fairly sedentary office job, then you have to try and compensate for that lack of physical activity with a lighter but highly nutritious diet. One great idea is to focus on foods that build up your concentration and maintain your energy levels through the day. It’s a good idea to stay away from carb-heavy meals or stodgy foods that will make you sleepy. Oatmeal for breakfast is a good start, as is switching from coffee to green tea.
Leafy green vegetables and avocado along with fatty fish are fantastic brain foods, not to mention being highly nutritious and helping to keep you healthier at your desk. For a treat, you could give yourself some dark chocolate to nibble on, which will help release endorphins and keep you feeling positive. Those endorphins might even help your memory.