Whether you’re in the office at a desk or working from home on your laptop, sitting crouched in front of a screen all day can play merry hell on your joints and muscles. Loads of us picked up back niggles during the pandemic and three years on, we’re still hobbling around.

Posture at your work station matters. Type away with your shoulders hunched up to your ears, and you’ll quickly run into pain and tightness. Sit with your legs crossed or feet tucked under and no amount of pilates is going to be able to re-align your spine. 

The only way to really undo the damage done by sitting in funny positions is, well, to do something about your posture.

Monica Blackburn, osteopath at MFB Osteopathy, tells Strong Women that there is a right way to sit at your desk that doesn’t put “undue strain through the joints, muscles and soft tissues in your body”.

This strain occurs when you “hunch forwards over the computer or laptop”. That, Third Space physio Kathryn Tilbury says, “encourages the head and shoulders to migrate forwards and the upper back to curve”.

But the biggest strain issue, according to Tilbury, isn’t how you sit but how long you sit for at your desk. “The body is designed to move, so it doesn’t respond well to sustained postures.”

Our experts say the following symptoms are signs you’re sitting in the wrong position:

• Hunched shoulders
• Rounded upper back
• Tucked pelvis
• Forward head position
• Headaches
• Stiffness
• Muscle aches
• Back ache

If you need a bit of a push to remind you to get moving, Tilbury suggests you “set an alarm to remind you to get up”. She also suggests walking around the house on a call, making a tea or a coffee, or doing a bit of stretching in between each meeting.

It’s also a good idea to “optimise your work set up,” she says. This could include ensuring your chair is at the correct height and your equipment is suitably spaced to help you maintain a good posture at your desk. If you’re unsure of whether you are set up adequately, you can “ask your place of work if they offer an ergonomic assessment.”

Blackburn has some helpful advice for those concerned about the way they sit during the working day. To start with, she recommends you “invest in a good office chair”, ideally one that’s “adjustable and can swivel.” You should also “pull the chair up underneath your table or desk, as this will help prevent you slumping down.”

It’s also important to ensure your screen is at eye level, so that you aren’t straining your neck to look at your computer while you work. If it’s your arms and wrists that are giving you grief, though, you can invest in a separate plug-in keyboard and mouse, which will give them more room to work.

For clients who struggle with aches and pains due to their sedentary working lives, both experts recommend stretching circuits that can be done during the working day. 

Monica Blackburn’s stretching circuit

Roll down

1. Stand up from your desk, reach your arms up
2. As you exhale, start bending forward, starting with your neck and slowly curling down until you can touch your toes
3. Hang at the bottom for a few seconds
4. Return to standing and repeat.

Upper back rotation

1. Sit up straight with your arms bent and your hands touching your shoulders
2. Breathing deeply, twist through your spine to the left, straightening your right arm out to the left
3. Return to centre and do the same on the other side
4. Repeat a few times.

Neck circles

1. Sitting up straight, drop your chin to your chest
2. Then slowly roll your neck round to the right so that your right ear is touching your right shoulder
3. Then roll your neck back to centre and repeat on the left side.

Chin tucks

1. Sitting upright, bring your chin inward towards your neck (like you’re giving yourself a double chin)
2. Return to normal and repeat.

Images: Getty