16 February 2022

Work-life balance: Preventing backbone and neck pain in the home office

Today, the Austrian government announced the next steps for lightening the restrictions. On 19 Februar, the first phase with relaxed measures will start with easier access to gastronomy for example. The first phase will last until 5 March. On this day almost all restrictions will fall. The reason for the in-between phase from 19 February until 5 March is the second Omicron variant BA.2 which has to be observed closely. The end of the pandemic can't be estimated yet but the strategic plan with lighter measures from 5 March such as wearing masks only in critical infrastructure such as apothecaries, groceries or when using public transport services will protect the health system. However public life will develop in the next weeks, remote working or home office will remain part of everyday life. For many professions it was possible already before the pandemic to work from home or from an office outside of the company, and the ones who were forced into the new working situation and learnt to self-organize the workflow can easily switch between the workplaces in future. Self-organization is key to work-life balance. This includes health care as well.

Home office has positive and negative sides. One of the negative sides of sitting at the computer at home over hours is back pain or pain in the neck. When working in an office, the way from home to the workplace at the company and back is a daily healthy walk-training. Additionally when working at home, hours at the computer go by with minimal movement. At the company workplace, coffee with a colleague at the cafeteria is a normal break from the computer work situation with movement from one place to another. After the two years that remote working is practiced by wide parts of the population, tips for preventive health care are trending such as in fitness media, where new special training videos for the back, for the posture, or for stretching are regularly published, or in medical-related media releases, where topics such as the impact of the ergonomic situation of the computer workplace (position of the upper end of the screen in the height of the eyes, height of the office chair,...) on the health of the neck and backbone are explained.

German Design Award 2021 winner 'Plankpad' sent tips for exercises against neck and backbone pain - with the company's product and without. Among the exercises without the company's training tool from wood is one which can be used as a relaxing and muscle strengthening break while sitting on the office chair. Sit up straight - it's best to imagine that your head is being pulled up on a string. Put your hands on the back of your head and slowly press it against the hands. Stay in the stretch for a while and then gently release it again.

Images: The pictures show the Plankpad in action in the home office - one image shows the tool used as a balance board, the other for planking. For keeping the balance when standing on the Plankpad, the body automatically trains the lower muscles and motoric coordination. Left: The entire body with focus on the prevention of back pain will be trained at the pad's name giving exercise with elbows under the shoulders, toes in the floor, stomach tightened. For the training, Plankpad provides an app with workout guides and games which support the movement on the pad. Photos: © Michael Mueller, michaelmuellerfotografie.com.