Is Your Workstation A Pain Station?

One more day! another day at work, another additional painful 8 hours at work? does this sound like you? or your workplace?
How often do you think you can put up with anymore pain at work? physical pain from skeletal muscles flying around your head, neck, behind your eyes, jaws, shoulders and radiating down your back, your hips are stuck, knees ache and ankles are numb or mental and emotional confusion with pain arising from poor work conditions, deadlines and insatiable bosses.

Pain should not be tolerated, its simply a way the body signals you that something is wrong and needs to be fixed, it’s the body’s protective function from causative factors. The more you ignore this, the more it builds up in different areas until it submerge the entire body into an unbearable level of pain requiring medical attention.

Is this what you want for yourself? to go through expensive treatments and loading your body system with drugs to kill off pain? not to mention the psychological effects of depression at work which leads to low productivity.

If your body is calling out to you through pain today, don’t ignore it, take some time to observe the source of the pain and be wise enough to do something about it and I’m not talking about medications here, I refer to simple prevention and management techniques that could alleviate the situation or stop it from getting worse.

Recently, I discovered that even employees do not help themselves, they get stuck at their workstations, sitting badly for hours, ignoring the stretch breaks and staring sometimes hypocritically at the screen all because they don’t want to get fired.

Quick question here? When you get ill or injured, do you get paid compensation? When a colleague passes on, does he/she not get replaced? Be wise and take care of your health at work and at home. Embrace workplace health hygiene practices and save yourself from unwarranted pain and cost. If you really choose to live a long and healthy life free from pains, you will practice good time management, take frequent stretch breaks at work to relieve fatigued muscles, upgrade your sleep patterns, eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly, practice mindfulness and good posture at all times.

How many years do you have to live? Do you want to live them in pain?

Need I say more? Get training and help for your work environment. Be the key to unlocked potential at work, ask for help to live a healthy work lifestyle. Advocate for a pain free workplace today. Let your voice be heard.

We are here to help you! Live Painless today, Yes you can!

Meet my new distant affiliate for personal and workplace fitness in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. ACE Certified Trainer and Functional Movement Specialist. Matthew Brady at http://www.AnytimeFitness4You.com

Movement : A Key To Productivity At Work

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.

Does Your Workplace Care?

Have you ever wondered if your workplace cares about you or just interested in your contribution and nothing else? Care can be defined with many terms but in this particular instance with regards to your health and well-being. And again not just talking about HMOs, but at work, working conditions on site, your workstation, YOU as a person.

Perhaps it sounds too personal, but yes, your output is also personal whether you work in a team or not. The ideas and tasks come from you and together with other individual ideas and tasks the job is accomplished. Let’s rewind to the caring part.

Have you ever had an ergonomic assessment at work? Not just the general surveys we see around but the individualised assessment that targets you as a person in relation to your work environment, equipment, body and mind fitness and several other tools.

This can be very important because without the individuals to operate the equipment or machines nothing gets done. ‘’ the machines don’t have a mind of their own and they are limited to ideas and tasks performed’’.

Here’s why the human being is important and the human factors come in. Ask yourself ‘’what sort of impact does my environment have on me, my mind and body?’’

Being productive starts from the mind and when there are problems adjusting to the work conditions, the mind gets distracted and the inability to focus comes in, and when you can’t focus what happens? Inability to be productive or not being able to reach maximum productivity and when this happens, here comes the stress leading to further breakdown of the body and mind aggravating into distress and depression then furthermore, you hate your job and probably what you have become as a result of the job.

This is why the little things at work can be very important. It all starts with a simple workplace assessment covering each individual and then the environment.

Assessment come in different forms, but more importantly, it is advised to carry out assessments while the individual is at work performing daily tasks, watching movements, anatomical and physiological response of the body, adaptation, repulsion, attitude, mind-set, time response, physical comportment and several other tools which are used to determine the wellness of an individual at work. With all this in mind, the root cause of low productivity, health problems, injuries and stress levels can be uncovered and the appropriate solutions to the problems will be implemented rather than going through the curative stage at the hospital, incurring ending bills just because the source of the problem hasn’t been removed.

If indeed productivity is your goal and you truly care about yourself or your employees. Think CARE, Think SMART!

GET THAT ASSESSMENT AS PART OF YOUR EMPLOYEE WELLNESS PROGRAMME TODAY!

Ergonomics and Yoga at Work.

Recently I have been exploring how Yoga can help to realign the mind and posture of individuals in their occupational setting to prevent and minimise trauma to the different parts of the body and restore flexibility and comfort at work.

Spending so many hours at workstations without giving room for the body to recover causes an accumulation of stress in specific parts of the body as well as the mind. The accumulated stress eventually blows out affecting the physical body so badly causing damage to muscles, bones and the mind either in a short term or in a long term.

However, practicing Yoga in break periods or even at your workstations can give the individual the opportunity to rid the body of stress through breathing effectively, increasing focus through quiet meditation and relaxing tensed muscles with the practice of specific poses.

All these are ways to help workers attain maximum benefits with little effort with no injuries. I have successfully introduced yoga to my ergonomics training programs in workplaces and the results are stunning.

In subsequent posts I will explain how each of these Yoga practices at work can help increase productivity, reduce confusion and bring peace to the body’s system as well as rid it of aches and pains which could be disastrous over the years. I’m sure you don’t want to spend your finances on treatment as a result of past work.

Join me for more information Yoga and ergonomics in the workplace.

Feel free to comment, ask questions and give opinions on this introductory article. Your feedback is highly welcome.

Follow @amandaergoyoga on instagram.
Next post
Understanding the link between ergonomics and yoga at work.

 

Planning Ahead For Your Workplace.

Great news! It’s the end of the year, and as employers and employees, have you been able to evaluate the overall health and wellness of your workplace? Has it served you in terms of productivity?
Sometimes , we ignore our Occupational Health and focus our attention on the financial gains our work brings us. However, if we constantly fail to acknowledge our health at work, someday, it will come back to hunt us.

As the holidays draw near, Here are a few tips for your Workplace.

1. Plan Ahead for the Coming Year:
Call up a meeting and structure a plan to include health and wellness training, activities and checks for your employees. while at this, assessment of your workplace will come in handy when considering change of equipment and furniture.

2. Get your Holiday in View:
Determine to make the best of this holidays by taking a vacation (it doesn’t have to be an expensive one) just getting away to a different location with peace and quiet free from workload can be refreshing.

3. Take up a Holiday Recreational Activity:
Perhaps, throughout the year, you haven’t been able to play your favorite games, either indoors or outdoors. Here’s the time to try it out, get some friends or colleagues and head for a beach, resort or perhaps your backyard. Play some games and bond with each other. This takes out a whole lot of mental stress. Good organisations can make this happen.

4. Plan Healthy Meals:
It’s a season of celebration, and meal planning can be a made a little different at our cafeteria or at home. Try something new at work, by changing the regular meals and drinks for more nutritious and exciting food combinations. Remember, change is good, it may not seem attractive at first but over time it becomes a good culture. Substitute junk foods for more fish garnished with vegetables and chilled natural juice extracts for soda amongst other choices.

5. Engage your workplace athletes with exercises and games:
Workplace Athletes? Yes! Your workers are basically athletes because they actually go through the day to day activities doing jobs that have goals and a finish line; besides, they use range of body motions throughout the day and constant mental work to get to that finished line. Plan to include daily scheduled exercises such as Yoga poses for stretching as well as relaxing the mind and body, games such as squash which doesn’t require so much to set up at work and few runs on a treadmill can help to boost the mental capacity of employees with the added advantage of reducing the risk of workplace injuries.

Guess you might say, how do we achieve this? Think ahead! Putting your employees first will get you more clients and a successful business. Remember, they are the direct link between your clients and finances. Play fair!