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A few months ago we started offering one to one 6 Week Custom Personalized Training Programs. Upon purchase, clients fill out an intake form letting me know their goals, any past injuries, any aches or pains they’re experiencing, their stress levels, average sleep time, and more. I take their info, and check out the body composition photos they send in and develop a program to help them on their fitness journey.
While everyone has different goals, I began noticing that nearly everyone was experiencing back pain, and notably, were working from home due to COVID, and not at their usual desk set up in the office. I found myself writing the same tips over and over again, so I figured it was time to put them into a blog post. In today’s post, we’ll cover how to create a standing desk work space and some postural tips for working while standing.
Why Create a Standing Desk Work Space?
When we sit for prolonged periods of time without moving, a number of things may happen.
Anterior Tilted Pelvis: If your pelvis is anteriorly tilted, you may experience compression through the lumbar spine and restriction through the low erectors (the low back). Your psoas may become overworked, your core may not fire as well as it could, and you may experience anterior hip pain.
Posterior Tilted Pelvis: If your pelvis is posteriorly tilted, you may experience pain through the quadratus lumborum. The positioning of your pelvis may cause you to slouch, essentially turning off your core, restricting your chest, and stretching the upper back muscles too much.
In addition, prolonged sitting, especially when looking down at a computer screen all day, may aggravate the neck because the head may come forward. It can also restrict blood flow, negatively impact the gluteal muscles, and restrict the hip flexors. But we have to work, so what do we do? One of the things you could do, especially if you’ve got a laptop, is create a standing work space.
How to Create a Standing Desk Set Up
There are a number of ways to create a standing desk set up.
Use what you have. You can use a table, countertop, or stack books to create the appropriate height. It’s a little easier if you’re taller because you can always make your computer higher. If you’re shorter, it’s a little more challenging. At 5’1, I’ve found that countertops are generally the right size for me.
The other option, if you want to get fancy, is to buy an adjustable desktop like this one or this one, with two levels for keyboard and monitor.
Postural Tips for Working While Standing
Weight Distribution: You’ll want your feet positioned like you see in the bottom right.
Top Left: If your toes naturally want to turn out, you may also be dealing with fallen arches. When toes turn out, it’s an indicator that the muscles on the lateral side of the lower leg may be tight, and your adductors may be underactive. You can foam roll the lateral part of the lower legs, and you can be a bit more mindful of where you distribute your weight. Visualizing a footprint in the sand and pushing into that footprint (ie: the heel, lateral side of the foot, across the toe bed and ball of the foot and into all five toes) should help to lift the arches of the feet.
Top Right: If you rest your weight on one leg, the opposite foot tends to turn out. Constantly hanging out in this position may eventually negatively impact how the low back feels because one leg is doing a lot of work, and the other leg isn’t working much at all. Further, when you turn your resting foot out, you’re lengthening the adductors (which may be a problem if they’re already underactive) and restricting the muscles that run along the lateral side of the leg. This positioning can throw off the positioning of the pelvis, which may then lead to SI joint irritation and low back irritation.
Bottom Left: Many people stand with their feet pointed forward, which is great, but then they lock out their knees, and shift their weight forward into the balls of the feet. This then usually leads to the belly being pushed forward, and the low back ends up taking the brunt of the weight. This may lead to compression of the lumbar spine, and underactive glutes and core.
Bottom Right: What you’ll want to aim to do is stand with your feet about hip distance, your weight evenly distributed across the “footprint” part of your feet described above, and have a micro-bend in your knees. A micro-bend is such a soft, minimal bend you might not even see it if you were to take a photo from the side.
Knee Positioning while Standing
Try to avoid locking your knees, because this tends to aggravate the hamstrings, especially if you’re prone to hyperextension. Instead, keep a micro-bend in your knees. It should be such a slight bend that you wouldn’t even see it if you took a photo from the side.
Elbow Position while Working From Home
You’ll aim to have your elbows at an angle greater than 90 degrees. This helps in avoiding recruitment of the upper trap muscles, which, when overactive, may aggravate the neck. With your elbows at a degree greater than 90, keep your arms loose and relaxed, but bring a very gentle engagement to your upper back so that your upper back isn’t rounding.
Head Positioning while Standing and Working
You’ll want to aim to have your head positioned right on top of your spine, rather than jutting out too far forward. The photo above is okay but not great. Ideally, my head should be back just a little bit.
Check Your Stance
Don’t be afraid to check in with your positioning by taking a photo from the side. Then, you can upload to Stories, and choose GIF and type in “Line”. A straight line will come up and you can reposition it to check in with your stance. You’ll want to aim to have your ankles, hips, shoulders and ears all line up for the most part. I say “for the most part” because honestly, we are humans, not robots, so it’s okay if you have a little variation, and you deviate a bit from the line. But if you’re experiencing chronic pain, it might be a good idea to place a line over your body to see what might be the root cause. If you’re very far off in one direction or another, that’ll provide some clues. If you need further help, you can always book a custom personal training program in which I’ll address any postural issues I see.
Continue Your Postural Education
I teamed up with Eva Tzschaschel this past year to create the Posture Program which is packed with videos, tips and an accompanying workbook to help you better understand human anatomy, movement, and all things posture, which you can check out if you’re interested.