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Anvic’s ‘Pink Ladies’ Race for Life
Let’s get Physical - an ergonomic insight into office health

 

Head down at your desk for hours on end, you can quickly lose energy and the motivation to work.

We all know the importance of including regular exercise in our daily routines but, given the reality of trying to fit exercise into a hectic work and home schedule, most of us tend not to bother.

Indeed, as our lives become busier and more stressful, the amount of people taking no regular exercise – crucial to combat stress and the negative health effects of being desk bound – appears to be on the up.

Here at Anvic we believe that a positive working environment and a balanced approach to exercise throughout the day can boost both individual and corporate productivity, helping to reduce stress, tiredness and improve concentration.

And so we have teamed up with leading ergonomics expert Dr. Christopher Norris of Norris Associates (www.norrisasasociates.co.uk) to offer advice on countering the serious health problems often caused by being desk bound. After all the facts speak for themselves – take, for example, the problems with back pain:

- Estimates from the Department of Health suggest that absence due to back pain costs British business in excess of £5bn every year in lost productivity.

- On any given day, around 1% of the working population is on sick leave because of back pain and chronic pack pain accounts for around 80% of all social and healthcare costs.

But back pain is jut one problem that can result from being desk bound or sitting at a workstation that has not been properly ergonomically assessed. Neck pain, headaches, stress, lethargy – all are typical symptoms of the office worker who spends too long sitting at a poorly designed work station and does not find time to incorporate exercise into their life. Anvic and Dr. Norris offer the following advice to office workers looking to improve their overall general health and well-being as well as boost their energy levels and reduce the risk of back or neck injury.

1. Make sure that your work station has been ergonomically assessed by an expert to ensure that your chair, desk, keyboard, monitor etc are all at the optimum height to suit your own individual needs.

2. Keep moving – try and take a break from your desk and your screen at least once every hour. Get up, walk around, sip a cup of water, look out of the window to readjust your eyes and gently shake out your arms and hands.

3. Always make time for a lunch break but don’t just sit at your desk – walk around even if it’s only half an hour. A few minutes of fresh air and exercise can leave you feeling refreshed but too many office workers never leave their buildings, opting for a snatched lunch at their desks which is almost always counter productive. Eat lunch away from your desk in a specially designated kitchen / lounge area or, if the weather is fine, eat outside and enjoy some vitamin D.

4. If feasible, try and walk to and from work or at least get off the train, bus or tram a few stops earlier to fit some additional exercise into your busy day. The health benefits of regular walking have been well documented and walking to and from work is a great way to prepare yourself for the day ahead or to de-stress and unwind before putting your feet up for the evening.

5. Try and incorporate some regular exercise / stretches into your working day to counter the effects of being at a desk or workstation. Dr. Norris, who is the author of The Complete Guide to Stretching (A.C Black) as well as an ergonomic expert and leading local physiotherapist, suggests the following stretches which anyone can do at their desk:

Over head reach
• Sit upright with shoulders touching chair back
• Interlink fingers and reach overhead keeping arms straight
• Reach up and back pressing your upper back and shoulders against the chair back. Repeat 3 times

Chin tuck
• Sit upright and keep looking forwards (don’t look down)
• Tuck your chin in to give yourself a ‘double chin’
• Hold this position for 3-5 second and then release. Repeat 5 times

Spinal twist
• Sit tall and fold your arms.
• Twist to your right and gently pull yourself further round by pulling with your right hand on your left elbow.
• Twist to the left, pulling on your right elbow with your left hand. Perform 3 twists in each direction.

“The key to making exercise work for you is to fit it into your daily routine,” explains Dr. Norris. “A few simple stretches, done regularly, at your desk can make more of a difference than most people realise and you don’t need any special equipment or extra time to do them.”

His views are echoed by our Managing Director, Paul Dawson, who says: “Sometimes it’s the little things which make a real difference and, by incorporating simple exercises into our working day, we can all boost our health and well-being without any real extra effort.”

“I also believe that a person’s day to day health is affected as much by the environment in which they live or work as the amount of physical activity they can fit in to their day. The working environment has a massive impact on productivity and job satisfaction so we have set out to ensure that, from an aesthetic point of view, all of our offices are spaces that people want to spend time in.”

 

Anvic are DDA compliant office space providers