DON’T JUST SIT THERE: MOVE!

By Kristina Maxwell, Physiotherapist

Like me, most people spend a good portion of their day at work. That means wellness while I work is essential.

For physiotherapists, ergonomics (the study of people’s efficiency in their working environment) is a part of our training. However, without getting too “sciencey,” the take-home point of ergonomics is that your workspace should be adapted to you — the person — and not the other way around. Another principle of ergonomics is that static positions are bad with a capital B. In the words of Josh Kerst, principal ergonomist at SAFCO Products — Align’s wellness integration partner — “The best position is your next position.” Truer words were never said. The human body wasn’t made to sit in a chair at a desk for eight hours in a row. It was meant to sit less and move more.

By moving more at work, a person can burn as much as 50 additional calories per hour.

Sitting less and moving more isn’t a new concept for wellness. In fact, the American Medical Association has a policy from 2013 that states “prolonged sitting, particularly in work settings, can cause health problems and offering employees alternatives to sitting all day will create a healthier workforce.” So why are we all sitting for hours on end at work? To put it even simpler, by moving more at work, a person can burn as much as 50 additional calories per hour. Since a person needs to burn 3,000 calories to lose a pound, someone could burn off 10 pounds in a year just by having an active workspace. Those are numbers we can get behind.

Products that can get people out of their chairs and active include leaning desks, fidget desks for children, and portable and non-portable lean-to standing chairs. These products are designed to give the sedentary office worker active options.

Before you say, “I can’t afford to make all these changes,” there are ways to make any desk an active desk with some propping or leg lengthening. Then you just need to be fitted for a lean-to standing chair. If you can’t change each individual workspace in your office, just change your central meeting room into an active space. The options are endless.

Let Align show you how to “#connecttoyourcore” with its active environment solutions.