EditorLuca Pellanda, a registered massage therapist, spoke at last week’s EAC-BC meeting about the importance of posture for good health. Married to editor Eve Rickert, Pellanda knows all about the particular stresses we face. He bases his work on the three concepts in his health triangle:
- REST
- nutrition, and
- mobility.
They are all interconnected. Rest is in capitals, he explained, because “it’s important. But as editors, you don’t seem to do much of that.” Figuring out when and how much to rest can ultimately make you healthier and more productive. Even when we face a deadline crunch, it’s usually better to take breaks and recharge rather than trying to power through.
Sleeping posture
Restfulness usually begins with getting enough sleep, and Pellanda showed how having the right support when you’re lying down—the kind that keeps your spinal column from overrotating at the neck or pelvis—can help you stay asleep longer and give you a more restful night.
Back
When you sleep on your back, make sure your pillow isn’t too high, pushing your neck forward. A pillow under the knees can help keep your pelvis aligned with the spine. A thinner pillow—you can use a folded towel—at the small of your back can also be a huge help, supporting your back and allowing your back muscles to rest.
Front
If you sleep on your front, be aware again of whether your pillow is too high; if it is, it increases the curve of your cervical spine. Although Pellanda doesn’t recommend against sleeping on your front, he does point out that, to breathe, your head needs to be turned to the side, which can fatigue the neck.
A thin pillow in the midriff area keeps the pelvis from rotating downward and causing pain. Again, a folded towel can serve this function well.
Side
Find a pillow that is at the appropriate height so that your neck isn’t tilted and so that your spine is aligned. An advantage of ergonomic pillows is that they are designed to give your ear and nose enough room when you’re on your side. A pillow between the legs helps keep the hips level. Finally, a small pillow in the midsection helps take weight off the shoulders, making it less likely that your shoulders will collapse toward one another as you sleep and strain your neck and shoulder muscles. Your arms, when you’re on your side, may also need their own supports. Pellanda says that a down pillow—provided you don’t have allergies—is a great option, because you can shift the feathers around and adjust the heights of different parts of the pillow to accommodate your head and your arms.
The common theme to all of these sleeping postures is the advantage of the thin pillow at the midsection, which supports your weight no matter your position, helps keep your spinal column aligned, and allows your muscles to rest.
Sitting posture
Even when we have the best of intentions to sit up straight, a lot of us end up slouching. When you lean in to look at a computer screen, the muscles at the back of your neck get fatigued, and your head moves forward. Your shoulders rotate to compensate for your head, and your pelvis has to rotate to compensate for your shoulders. When you have good posture, your spine is supporting about twelve pounds of pressure. If you move your head two inches forward, the cervical spine has to support 32 pounds; three inches forward, and the spine has to support an equivalent of 42 pounds.
If possible, get a comfortable chair that has as many adjustments as possible so that you can customize it to your body. Lumbar support is good but not necessary—a stool can work just as well. Your feet should be flat on the ground or on a footrest with the toes pointing slightly upward. Some footrests are adjustable in tilt and height, and moving your feet while you work is actually very healthy, because it helps pump the blood back up from your legs into your torso. Make sure the front of your seat isn’t pressing into the back of your knees; otherwise it could interfere with blood circulation in your legs.
To get the most out of your work day, vary your posture: sit up straight, sit semi-reclined, and stand up. Being able to switch between positions wears on you less and lets you have longer stretches of productivity. Your body does need to take regular breaks, though, where you stretch or go for a walk. Everybody’s different, so telling everyone to take a break every twenty minutes isn’t realistic. Test out different work cycles of x minutes on, y minutes off to see what works for you. You can set up regular reminders on your computer to take breaks.
If you’re reading not on screen but on paper, find a way to bring the page up to you rather than taking your head down to the page. Angled workstations, whether built-in or add-on, are actually quite affordable, said Pellanda, and they can reduce aggravation. (An ergonomic specialist once suggested a two-inch binder as a low-cost way of propping up proofs and reducing neck strain.)
When you work, your arm should be lower than your desk. The inherent flaw of laptops, Pellanda pointed out, is that if your monitor is at the right height, your keyboard is not—and vice versa. To solve this problem, he advises getting either an external monitor or an external keyboard. “And keyboards are cheaper,” he said. Pellanda sees a lot of shoulder injuries from people using a move-around mouse; a trackball may help prevent some of those injuries.
Standing posture
Standing desks are becoming more popular and, again, it’s important to arrange the workstation so that it suits your body. There are setups that allow you to adjust the position of your monitor and keyboard so that you can sit as well as stand. Pellanda showed us options for stools that support you while you stand but also allow you to lean into them. Some also feature a padded region for the knees so that you can kneel slightly. Being able to move comfortably from standing to leaning to kneeling can lengthen the amount of time you can spend at your workstation without getting too tired.
When standing, make sure that you have supportive footwear. High heels can create all sorts of havoc with your posture because they prevent your weight from being evenly distributed. They can lead to shortening of your calf muscles and other problems, including bunions and plantar fasciitis.
We are used to thinking of our back muscles holding us up when we stand, but the strength of our core muscles plays an important role in our posture. Pellanda suggests swimming as an excellent way to exercise and strengthen your core because it makes you use your muscles symmetrically.
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Ergonomic desks, chairs, and add-ons might seem to cost a lot of money, but Pellanda suggests that it’s an investment back into your health triangle. What’s the impact on your body of hours of slouching? Developing better posture allows your body to rest and could give you a better quality of life, so that you can actually enjoy it, when you’re done working.