Most office workers understand the importance of a practical desk set-up and maintaining good posture at work, but what about working from home?
With more people working from home than ever before, it’s important to raise awareness on how your posture can directly impact your nervous system function and health.
Posture Impacts Our Brain Power
Have you ever experienced a long afternoon sat at your desk with a lack of focus, decreased energy, low concentration levels and brain fog? Well, it could all be down to the way in which you’re sitting.
When you have good spinal alignment, your brain can communicate well with your body.
Posture can have a major impact on our mood and how we are feeling. This is due to the activation of the prefrontal cortex in the frontal lobe of your brain, which controls your cortical thinking, concentration and emotions.
How?
Your head is extremely heavy, the same weight as a bowling ball.
When you’re sat upright the weight of your head can be distributed evenly through the joints in your neck. There is no strain on the musculature and the frontal lobe is able to fire properly.
When you slump at your desk and your head leans forward, a lot of strain is translated through the joints and muscles causing the frontal lobe to deactivate, often resulting in:
- Decreased mood
- Low energy
- Lack of concentration
Offices are beginning to realise the relationship between posture and work productivity. Many have introduced measures to address this, such as desk assessments and standing desks.
However, it is much harder to get such an optimum environment when working from home. People are working from laptops, sat in dining chairs or slumping in beds or on the sofa for hours at a time. You may have found your mood and concentration significantly lower than when working from the office as a result.
Making the smallest changes to your home setup will make a big difference on both mental and physical wellbeing. For example making adjustments to your posture or changing your seating position.
Chiropractors are experts in improving spinal alignment and nervous system function. We can help with implementing these changes, including:
- Advice on correcting your posture
- Provide exercises to support your spinal stability
- Advice on improving your work from home set-up
The Chiropractic Health Centres now offer online video consultation calls with one of our qualified chiropractors. These will provide you with personalised advice to ensure you can continue working optimally during the ongoing weeks.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us for more information, we’d be happy to help.
