Sitting down is considered and often deemed as a ‘relaxed’ state after a long day of standing for hours or a few hours of manual labour. However, what of those who have to sit all day at the office for long periods of time, are they relaxed? The simple answer is no, they are not.
Sitting for long hours at the office is not something that is good for the health, especially physical health. Some have even claimed that sitting down is the new smoking due to the various health problems that have been observed to stem from sitting down or lying down too much.
Health journals have repeatedly correlated sitting and lying down over extended periods of time to chronic health issues associated to heart diseases, diabetes, certain cancers, back problems and even mental disorders.
The simple fact behind this is that humans are structured physically to stand up straight because from a medical perspective our entire cardiovascular system function better when we are standing up straight.
Even out bowel activities function much more efficiently when we are standing up and it is because of these facts that medical professionals constantly advise patients to become more active and lead an active lifestyle as a sedentary lifestyle is anything but good from a health perspective.
Sitting for too long causes our large leg muscles and as well as buttock muscles (gluteal) to deteriorate and when this happens, fat start building up as these muscle stop digesting excess fat and sugar.
Apart from that, the muscles around the hips and back also become gradually weaker and eventually these muscles will not be able to support the additional weight which ultimately leads to very bad posture – after which it is a downhill slope and to climb back up, it becomes difficult.
One way to overcome these medical issues especially for office employees who are required to sit at their workstations hacking away at their keyboards for hours on end is to incorporate ergonomics into their working environment.
Ergonomics is about fitting the job to the individual according to his or her physical properties and it is due to this that most modern offices in Melbourne feature ergonomic furniture in their offices and the most prominent or most important piece of furniture that advocates good healthy posture are ergonomic designer office chairs.
Ergonomic office chairs are generally designed with multiple adjustable features that range from the seat height from the floor, adjustable seat depth and slant and even width. These ergonomic office chairs may cost a little more than regular office chairs, but in return employees are able to sit comfortably for long periods of time without slouching due to the support that these chairs provide users.
Apart from that, research has also indicated that ergonomic office chairs allow employees to remain focused on their tasks longer mainly due to the fact that they do not fidget around as much when sitting in chairs that are designed ergonomically.
This ultimately leads to much higher productivity which is good for the organisation – it is a win-win for the organisation and the employee.