Posture whilst Sitting

Posture whilst sitting at work is of great importance and grossly underestimated when you factor in the proportion of your time spent sat at your office desk. Below we will look at some tips that can be followed to help with your posture that can contribute to a healthy back.

It is important to adjust your chair to make sure that it will support you properly to avoid strain on your back. We recommend that your knees are slightly lower than your hips - between a 5 and 15 degree angle as this encourages you to sit up straight. A Putnam 8 or 11 degree wedge can help to achieve this and can provide additional comfort; they are also available with a coccyx cut out which can redistribute the pressure on the base of the spine away to the remaining contact area. These are also now available in Memory Foam for added luxury and support.

The chair height should be adjusted so that you are sitting with the lumbar element of the chair supporting your back. Most office chairs do not offer much in the way of spinal support, Putnams offer a wide range of back supports that can help improve comfort in your posture for the office, travelling and in the car. Our lumbar rolls can be a great solution to improve sitting posture and comfort.

Feet should be flat on the floor, if not the chair should be raised or lowered or you might even need a foot rest. Make sure that your legs aren’t crossed as this can cut of circulation and cause problems with your hips. One element of posture whilst sitting that can be overlooked is the position of the screen, it is important that it is put at eye level. If the screen is low and close to you it can cause discomfort in the neck and upper spine as you are over extending it, we recommend that the monitor is placed at arms distance away from you and the top of the screen is at eye level.

If you are using a telephone a high proportion of the day make sure that you exchange the handset from side to side and avoid cradling the phone between your ear and shoulder as this can be damaging. The most important recommendation is that you regularly get up and walk around.

If you find sitting in an office chair uncomfortable and want a change then we recommend a kneeling chair that can help with posture as sitting on them will naturally cause you to sit up more straight.