Working From Home Is Killing Our Necks and Backs

You be glad to be with you. I saw this article from you working from home is taking a toll on our backs and necks, and right away I threw my hands up in there and I was like, that's exactly what's happening to me. You know, as a lot of people have been working from home, they've had to quickly make home office, and you know, not everybody has done it the right way. Per se. I can only speak for myself. I have no space in my house

really for an office set up. So what I had to do was we have like a little kitchen nook and that's where I've set my thing up. And it's a hard bench. I have no back support. There and sometimes after working a whole day, they're my back is killing me. But that's kind of what's happening to a lot of people. Aaron tell us a little bit about it. Yeah, your experience is what I heard from a lot of

ergonomics people and physical therapists and chiropractors. We were all sent home, or a lot of us were sent home. Those of us who work in office jobs were sent to work from home. And the first month was about finding a place to work. And if you're fortunate to have a home with some space in it, maybe you

took to the sofa or an armchair. But I was also hearing about people in cities who were crying on the phone with their doctors, saying, oh, my roommate claimed the kitchen table and I'm stuck working all day in the bedroom and I'm on the bed and my back is killing me. So the first month for a lot of us was about finding a place to work. And what I found is that the second month, now that we're eight weeks into this, is about the pain that's come from not quite getting it right. We haven't nailed

the ergonomics, and the muscle strain has built up. Now for two months and is really causing a lot of problems. This is a second month problem more than a first month work from home problem. And one of the craziest things is you think you have this comfy chair that you can sit in and you set up, maybe with your laptop or something, and do some emails, whatever the case may be, a meeting or something, and even that comfy chair, just the way you're sitting in it is

doing you all sorts of wrong. That's right. I mean, our homes are set mostly for comfort. Where are we going to sit when we watch TV or read a book. But now that we're doing those things, we're still watching TV, we're still reading a book, We're probably spending more time watching TV, and we're also spending the rest of the day with our laptops in that same chair or on that same sofa without proper posture. It's really building up. And you combine this with the fact that a lot

of people are more sedentary. Now. I know I is to go to the gym before work. I don't do that now. At the least I would walk to my car, go park it, and then walk to my office. There are fewer opportunities to change your posture and to stretch your legs, and that's compounding problems. Yeah, I'm on the kitchen in the kitchen nook on a hard bench. Sometimes I'm in that comfy chair writing emails. Sometimes I'm laying

down in the bed reading and doing some research. I was even outside getting attacked by a squirrel on one day. It's I've been all over the place with this whole thing. And one of the other things that has been bothering a lot of people, to beyond the finding a comfy workspace, is actually working on the laptops and our cell phones and the way our neck is positioned is also beginning to bother a lot of people. You know, you're hitting

something important. A lot of us are creating strain because we work on laptops and we look down at the screen, and then we look at our phones and spend a lot of time on TikTok or or email or whatnot on our phones, and we're looking down at our phones. And a bull of chiropractors said that your head, depending on your male or female or who you are, you

can weigh twelve pounds or so. But when you're you're angled down and your neck is angled so that you're looking down at a screen, a laptop or a phone. Your neck muscles have to hold up what becomes the equivalent of sixty pounds, and over time that creates a lot of strain and you can get headaches and back aches. So you spoke to a few chiropractors and ergonomic specialists for their recommendations and how to reduce stress on the body.

This is going to be going on for a little bit of times, though, So what can people do to help themselves? What I was told by a number of people is number one, don't look down at that screen if you're working on a laptop. Buy a stand for it, or put some books under it so that the screen is raised and your eyes should be about at the level of the monitor, so that you're looking across at

the screen or slightly up rather than down. To make that work, a lot of people are gonna need to buy an external keyboard or a mouse because you don't want to raise your laptop on some books and then have to raise your arms up high to type on the laptop. You want your arms to be at kind of ninety degree angle at your sides, about the same level as your elbows. You want your keyboard and mouse to be at about the same level of your elbows.

So if you can raise the screen and then get a detachable keyboard to keep that lower down at elbow height, you'll be better off. And that goes for your phone too. Don't look down at your phone you're typing on your phone, Maybe kind of tuck your elbows on your chest and raise your phone so that it's closer to high level some of the other ones. Don't slouch, you know, sit up straight with a little arch in your back. And you know, it's some of these same things that you

get tips for in the office. You know, move around so you're not always in that same spot, just to help relieve some of the muscles. But you know, you've got to take care of your body and your posture, even at home, especially since we're all spending so much more time there. Aaron Zittner, reporter at The Wall Street Journal, thank you very much for joining us. You got it. Glad to be with you. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this

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