How to Prevent Back Pain While Working at Home

Working from home is pretty common these days and while you may not have to commute into the office, you may be neglecting some very important factors to your health and wellbeing. If you are not careful, your home workspace may create new back pain that you haven't experienced before, and you may wonder what is happening.

Sit Well

It can be tempting to tuck yourself up on the corner of the sofa with your laptop and try and work in that position. For a few days, you'll probably get away with it, but after that, your back won't thank you. You must try and create an office setup with a chair that supports your back and your computer in front of you at a good height. You should not be looking down at your screen or craning your neck up; it should be directly in your line of vision when you sit with a relaxed neck. As you don’t have to dress up for the office either, why not wear compression leggings to help blood flow while seated at your desk.

Consider Positioning

The same applies to your mouse and keyboard setup, laptops are a great invention, but it is tricky to use one that has been adjusted to the correct height so that you are not looking down and still leaving the keyboard in a position that you are not stretching your arms. It's actually advised that if you're using a laptop, you raise it to the right position for your vision and attach a wireless keyboard and mouse at a lower level so that your wrists and arms are ergonomically positioned on the desk and not straining. Remember everything in your body is connected through your nerves, muscles, and whole skeletal system, so straining one part will put pressure elsewhere even if you don't realize it.

Correct Your Posture While Working

Take a break

People working from home can often put a lot of pressure on themselves to prove to their employer that they are actually working. But it is still important that you give yourself a break from time to time even if all you do is stand up and stretch your body every hour. If you are using a cell phone to take calls, try and do this while walking around. Stand up from your desk and pace around the living room, office, kitchen, etc. This will give your back a break from sitting all day and also give you a small amount of exercise.

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Try Speech to Text

If you have to do a lot of text input and spend a lot of the day typing, experiment with voice recognition. Technology has improved greatly over the years and you no longer need expensive third-party software. Microsoft Word has its own built-in dictation, as do many other programs. This means you can sit back slightly in your chair and not have to be curved over as you type. Some people find that it's actually easier and quicker to use speech to text, so it's well worth giving it a try.

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