primitive has back strain

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1147812

Oh my.

hedgehog (28,280 posts)  Thu Sep 6, 2012, 01:14 PM

I need some advice re back strain:

I work from home and and on the computer constantly. I'm working on getting up and moving around every 45 minutes. (It's hard to do when I am on a roll and deep concentrating!)

My problem is that I find myself sliding down in my chair, which puts a strain on my back just above the lumbar region. I have the chair cranked down as far as it will go so my feet are on the floor. i have a quilt wadded up between me and the chair back so I am sitting back. I think the problem is that the seat is still too deep; that I end up inching forward and sliding down. I'm working from a laptop so I am looking down at about a 30 degree angle from where I sit.

mopinko (38,877 posts)

1. prop your laptop.

i bought a bamboo laptop stand that picks it up, and gives it better air circulation. much more comfortable. arrange your screens as close to eye level as possible.

i also find that instead of getting up, i fold myself over in my chair and just relax everything. just hang it down there until the knots are gone.

i hear you. you just become a knot sometimes.

^^the hypochondrial primitive, who's added quite a bit of flabbage lately.

dogday (23,926 posts)

3. I put my feet on an old speaker

It keeps my back against the chair and gives me great support.

You know, recently I read something about how sitting more than a couple of hours a day is injurious to the health, and so I examined things.

I'm in front of the computer a lot.

I stacked four of those plastic milk crates (the ones that hold four 1-gallon jugs) on top of this table, two high, to try something; working at the computer while standing up.

The new height still needs some adjustment--and something better than plastic milk-crates--but it looks like to me it'll work.

<<doesn't like doing things injurious to health.   

[JohnnyReb]

DUmmie should get one of those massage tables with the hole in it for your face. The DUmmie can then lay down on the job...which is their natural job position.

[BattleHymn]

I work from home and and on the computer constantly. I'm working on getting up and moving around every 45 minutes. (It's hard to do when I am on a roll and deep concentrating!)

[RobJohnson]

Back pain does suck. Getting up and going for a short walk to keep things stretched out does seem to help. But the person at DU might need to see a doctor to make sure there is not something serious going wrong.

I usually stand all day at work, some days I am in the same spot most of the day hardly able to move....when I do try to move I am really locked up.

But the difference between me and most DUmmies is, my pain is from working for a living.

It does not require much work to suck in section 8 housing, food stamps and free medical care.

[Gina]

I sit at a desk all day too.  I have actually been looking at turning my desk into a standing one by raising it with blocks and using a bar stool type chair as my main chair. 

[RobJohnson]

I sit at a desk all day too.  I have actually been looking at turning my desk into a standing one by raising it with blocks and using a bar stool type chair as my main chair. 

That is the set up I had at one of my jobs in the car business when I ran a service dept.

I had a raised desk in the service lane. It worked out pretty well.