Got a desk job? Read this!

Your desk job is a nightmare for your health, your mind and your posture. And recent research published by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy reveals that one in five of us are working through our lunch break every day – chained to our desks – with employers failing to encourage staff to take proper breaks. Scary, huh?

So what can you about it? Well, we chatted to Lucie Noble, Senior Physiotherapist at London Bridge Hospital to put together some top tips for shifting bums off seats and getting a bit more active in the office.

Take a break
Sorry, but even if your boss is a keen clockwatcher or your colleagues are obsessed with eating lunch ‘al-desko’ (sorry!) while they plough through yet another report, you absolutely have to take a lunch break. Whether it’s a full hour or just 15 minutes, you have to step away from your desk and your work. ‘Preferably take an hour lunch break but even a half hour break is better than nothing,’ says Lucie. It’s essential for your health. ‘One of the key problems of the sedentary lifestyle related to office work is the impact on your metabolism – the way in which you metabolise sugar and fats reduces substantially with inactivity, and this can lead to diabetes, heart disease and obesity,’ says Lucie.

Walk it off
And don’t just go and sit in the coffee shop around the corner. A lunch break is a great opportunity to get moving. ‘Something that is clear from our work at the London Bridge Hospital clinic and from research is that it’s not just movement that is important in maintaining weight loss, sitting for long periods of time and general low-activity levels slows down your metabolism and the way that your body breaks down fats and sugars,’ says Lucie. ‘And that’s when people start storing fat in their abdomen.’ Yup the longer you sit around for, the faster than muffin top will creep back. And weight around your middle is a real health issue. ‘Fat stored in this area is very much linked to high cholesterol, weight gain and all the problems associated with obesity, as well as increased blood pressure, so it is essential for everyone to take steps to minimise this,’ says Lucie. Take a stroll around the local park, go for a browse around the shops or go for a run with a work buddy.

Be injury aware
Sitting on your backside every day can also contribute to injury. ‘Sitting increases the disc pressures around your spine much more than standing does, and is therefore very bad for your posture,’ says Lucie. ‘Sitting for long periods of time affects the muscles around our joints so if you are sitting down your hip flexes become much more overactive and tight, and synergistically your glutes then become very weak – and that’s when you start to see people picking up injuries when they exercise.’ Hamstring injuries and knee problems are classic inactivity injuries.

Shift around
There’s no ideal sitting posture when you’re desk bound, as in an ideal world you’d be moving about, but wriggling around in your seat could help to boost posture and reduce the effects of inactivity. ‘There isn’t a generic, ergonomically perfect position for people to sit in. What’s more crucial is that we keep moving – our bodies are meant to be on the move, that’s why we have so many muscles and joints in our body, and they react when we insist on staying still,’ say Lucie. ‘You’re better off moving around or fidgeting while you’re seated – shift positions, lean forwards, lean back, constantly shuffle around – just don’t sit still, so you are keeping that posture changing.’

Be kind to your back
Taking a break from a sitting position is also essential for the health of your back. ‘In terms of muscle and joint use, sitting down is very easy. You don’t have to recruit many muscles when you’re sitting down, in comparison to when you’re standing or moving,’ says Lucie. As a result, our bodies become quite lazy, especially around our core, and when these core muscles become ineffective, other muscles have to compensate. This is when we start to feel the pressure on our back muscles as this is the area that takes the strain.’ The solution? ‘I would encourage people to be disciplined about taking a lunch break and move around every hour,’ says Lucie.

Need a little more help? Try our desk-job workout, to stretch out those muscles and get you moving.