The Way You Set Up Your Desk Matters

As someone who consistently aims to help others release tension not just in the short term but in the long-run too, it requires that I look at daily movement patterns and posture, as well as past injuries.

Especially in this day and age, a significant part of our own individual tension-story lies within our occupation. We spend countless hours repeating the same tasks over and over, and more often than not, we’re spending large lengths of time seated at our desks. The chairs we sit in are incredibly inadequate for supporting good posture (even the “ergonomic” ones)…but that’s an entirely different post for another time.

Just a few weeks ago I was lucky enough to spend 7 days basically entirely absent from my computer. As someone who preaches computer breaks to others, it was high time I really tested out my own advice.

I can certainly tell you that all of the above (neck, back and posture) benefited significantly from this much needed time away from my laptop. Part of my role as a massage practitioner is to discover the source of tension, and sitting at a laptop all day is certainly a tension-inducing movement/stillness pattern. We’ve likely all heard this before in some capacity, and I posted about it a few months ago in reference to taking a neck-break from the stillness. Beyond this there are a few extra things that we can do to help alleviate and reduce the overall amount of tension that is collected in our backs and necks by improving our desk ergonomics. Here is a cool little video I found floating around on facebook that I wanted to share with you! It helps us become more aware of ideal positioning relative to our computers, and therefore helps us optimize our movements and reduce excess tension build-up. Take a peek:

Taking the time to set up our work environments intelligently will help to lower any discomfort we gain from our profession. Short of getting rid of a desk/laptop, which is not always an option, we can make some small but significant adaptations to find greater relaxation in our everyday. It might even be like we’re bringing a little bit of our vacation back to the office…or at least that’s what I’m telling myself 😉

Let me know if you find any more cool videos like this one! I love checking these things out.

Wishing you the best,
Drew.