It’s amazing how our bodies were made, not to be static but for movement. however, we have developed poor habits of been static each day unintentionally and sometimes due to laziness.
In recent times, the workplace has become the factory for body pains,musculoskeletal injuries and mental breakdown. This issues has resulted from employees working without the principles of movement at the back of their minds.
Imagine your body as a vehicle that needs to be serviced and maintained by assessing and implementing proper use of brakes, wheels, joints and so on. if you fail to check these important parts, it results to damage, wear and tear with a final breakdown.
We do not want these to happen to our bodies just because we are sedentary or static at work. When we move, we generate signals sent to different parts of our bodies, in and out of the central nervous system to effector organs which coordinate movements through the muscles creating space for effective blood flow as well as increased focus which enhances productivity.
But as we stay in one spot for countless hours each day, our degree of movement decreases giving rise to poor muscular function physically and mentally (remember the brain is also a functioning muscle) over the years and finally low productivity.
There are questions you may need to consider, let’s go through each of them.
1. How often do you move at work?
2. What kind of movements do you engage in and how long do you engage in those movements?
3. Are they purposeful or just performed to please someone else?
Movement should be done with awareness, it should be deliberately planned and motivated for it to be productive, been aware of each body part and creating meaningful movement along specific joints and muscles should be practiced constantly. For instance, you don’t just resume work and sit for 8 hours straight staring into you screen, even the movement of the human eyes are controlled by surrounding muscles and keeping them static can become detrimental to your health.
Moving for the first few minutes and sitting all day isn’t counted as meaningful. Mini 3 minute breaks inbetween work every 30 minutes are recommended for meaningful movement and reducing strain on particular muscles especially if you sit all day at a desktop.
Moving the different body parts during these breaks in specified directions will help to restore blood flow and ease out cramps or tight muscles. Learning these movements is also essential at work.
4. Are the movements static or dynamic?
We may refer to static here, as still sitting down and just moving one or two body parts around and dynamic as getting up and creating a flow of movements without stopping until a cycle is complete.
The dynamic approach causes spontaneous blood flow around the body , while the static may just relieve a body part suffering from a cramp or target area. It’s important to make good choices in accordance to the work task we are involved in. This makes the movement purposeful because they are targeted movements for a specified time before returning to work.
So now,
5. Are you ready to become truly productive at work?
Being ready is a question we need to ask ourselves at work, the change has to be intrinsically motivated by yourself with the willingness to take a break from the task and refresh your muscles and mind as well as externally motivated by the daily wellness programs planned for the workplace.
The daily planned programs can be as simple as using a standing desk and alternating task, to using exercise balls for stretching the muscles of the back and thighs in a play room, to having after work Yoga sessions for stress relief as well as a ping pong table within the office space.
I’d say, one cannot exist without the other because if you are willing to take a break while your office won’t let you; is as problematic as the workplace providing outlets for stretch breaks and you as an employee disregarding it.
Therefore, you need to reset your mind and take measures to increase productivity at work without damaging your body and mind in the future.
Movement is the Key! Move More , Live Longer, Be Productive.
Amanda Ergonomics Consultants 