Working in an office typically involves spending most of your time sitting down in a chair at a computer - a position that can add stress to many part of your body. To avoid straining your spine, it is important to have a workspace that works for you ergonomically. The Back Store explores office ergonomics and illustrates some simple solutions you can implement today.

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Office Ergonomics: How to Improve Your Workspace

What is Ergonomics?

Definition: An applied science concerned with designing and arranging things people use so that the people and things interact most efficiently and safely.

The practice grew out of the increasing costs associated with workplace injuries to the soft tissues in the body such as:

Muscles

Tendons

Ligaments

Nerves

Blood vessels

40% of compensation claims among office workers pertain to work-related musculoskeletal disorders, often linked to poor posture over a computer.

Work-related musculoskeletal disorder symptoms:

Neck strain

Lower back pain

Hand and wrist tendinitis

Carpal tunnel syndrome

Lost productive time due to back pain, headache, neck pain, and other musculoskeletal discomfort costs U.S. companies an estimated $61.2 billion per year.

These injuries are responsible for over 70,000 lost work days per year on average.

Work-related causes of injury:

33% computer related

32% lifting and carrying

35% general office work

Top 3 office posture mistakes:

Reaching forward to use a mouse

Hunching one shoulder to cradle a telephone

Looking down at papers lying flat on a desk

Repetitive motions can double your chances of developing a work-related musculoskeletal disorder.

Office workers with poor workstation design are 3 times more likely to report pain associated with musculoskeletal disorders than those with ergonomic design.

From an ergonomics standpoint, the most important piece of office equipment is the chair.

This is because lower back pain remains the most prevalent and costly work-related musculoskeletal disorder facing industry, both in the United States and in other industrialized countries.

What to look for in a chair: