Ergonomic Home Office: A Guide to Healthier Workspaces and Better Posture

Lounging on the sofa may be great for relaxing, but it's not the best option for work.

With many of us working from home at least part of the week, there are likely to be millions of people sitting at laptops or PCs in our lounges, bedrooms, or kitchens - and not all of us will be in the right posture for healthy working.

How we work in these ‘home office' spaces matters just as much as it does in our employers’ offices.

If we want to avoid health conditions such as back pain, eye strain, repetitive strain injury and other issues, we need a good workspace set up wherever we are.

When researchers looked at health complaints being reported online a year into the pandemic, when many more people than before were working from home, they found that 56% more of us, around 4.7 million, were reporting headaches than in January 2019.

Complaints of another issue often caused by poor desk posture, wrist pain, went up by 96% in the same period.

Because remote working at least one or two days each week is now the norm for many of us, that amounts to at least 20-40% of working hours when any of us could be risking injury and experiencing significant physical stress if our home office set up is not ergonomic.

Think ergonomics

Making the working day healthier and easier is all about ergonomics.

In terms of an office set-up, this means making sure that our environment, desk, chair and other equipment fit around our physical and postural needs and help us to work comfortably and easily.

We need to understand what good posture is and use equipment that helps with this, if we want to prevent a whole host of potential health issues, ranging from musculoskeletal injuries to frequent headaches.

Four zones for comfort

The 4 Zone Approach™ from Fellowes explains the four main areas of posture that we need to get right to prevent injury:

Zone 1 - prevent back tension

Seated posture should be with legs parallel or slightly sloping to the floor, with the lower back and feet fully supported.

Sitting without proper support, or with your back hunched, can lead to back pain or a musculoskeletal injury.

To reduce this risk, you need to make sure your back and feet are supported by your chair and the floor, using a lumbar support or footrest if needed.

Zone 2 – prevent wrist tension

Typing on a keyboard for hours at a time can cause pain and discomfort to our wrists.

A good way to lower the risk of wrist strain is by keeping wrists in a neutral posture and using a wrist support for your keyboard and mouse if you need to.

Zone 3 – relieve neck strain

Leaning forward or tilting your head up or down to see a computer screen can place strain on your neck and back.

If the top of your screen is not level with your eyes, your monitor needs to be raised, or lowered so that it is. A monitor support or monitor arm can help you do this.

Zone 4 – reduce inactivity

Getting up and moving around throughout the day is vital to our health.

Many office workers spend up to ten hours a day sitting down, both at a desk when they’re working and on the sofa after work. This makes it much harder to maintain a healthy weight because we can only burn half the number of calories that we do when standing or walking.

Sitting for long periods also slows the metabolism, which affects our ability to regulate blood sugar, blood pressure and break down body fat. This then brings risks of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and some cancers.

To combat this, you should leave your desk and walk around, ideally every 30 minutes. This also gives your eyes a break from your screen and helps lower the risk of eye strain.

Healthy sitting exercises

Think about doing some simple stretching exercises to offset aches and pains that could come from sitting most of the day, such as:

Seated spinal rotation

While seated, cross your arms over your chest and grab your shoulders.
Rotate your upper body from the waist, turning gently from left to right as far as you can.
You should feel a tension on both side of your lower back as it stretches out.
Hold for three to five seconds and repeat three to five times.

Shoulder rolls

Gently bring your shoulders up and roll them backwards.
Let them slowly fall down.
You should feel tension being released as your shoulders drop.
Repeat this movement five to six times.

Sitting back extensions

Sit straight with your feet together.
Put the palms of your hands into the small of your back.
Lean back over your hands, feeling your lower back stretch out.
Repeat this exercise three to five times.

Make an assessment

To understand how healthy your home working space is, you can assess your set up online at Fellowes’ simple, free workstation assessment.

This quick five-minute check will help uncover if you are working comfortably, address injury risks, and help you correct any postural mistakes.

By following the three principles of ergonomics, posture and movement, you can dramatically improve your home office set up and make your working life much healthier.

Find out more by exploring Fellowes workspace ergonomic range today.

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