Furniture and Sitting Postures

Furniture plays a lot of role in determining the body posture of a person. You must be well aware of the ergonomic studies being carried out these days. Did you know that in earlier days, there was a carpenter for each house who used to create the furniture specially for everyone based on their convenience and physical build? Yes, there were ergonomic practices in ancient times too. So, now we understand that how important it is to use the right chair and right stool. Even the furniture brands have research divisions these days. I know Godrej has.

Swivel chairs or rotating chairs should not be used as they put pressure on the back. If you have to use them, use the ones which have adjustment levers so that the chair can be adjusted according to your height. Always have the desk at the right height - not too high or too low. Your hands should always be parallel to the ground while resting on your desk and thighs should also be parallel to the ground while sitting in the chair with your buttock touching the back of the chair. Some offices have become pretty employee friendly in such issues and are taking care of the ergonomic needs while others have to yet realize the importance. If you do not like the furniture at your office, consider buying your own or moving some of the necessities. Some do agree but not all.

Similarly, bucket seats in the cars or the sofas might be too attractive and too comfortable but I do not think they are very friendly coz they suck you in and to get up, you really need to struggles and get up out of them. This is entirely my opinion. I have not done research on bucket seats. I personally do not like them coz I hate the idea of struggling to getting up and I don't really feel comfortable in them. Likewise, do not buy a sofa set or other sitting accessories which are too low for someone to sit. It puts a lot of strain. On the other hand, you can use a simple diwan setting which is just an inch or two raised from the ground. But, not anything in between. Thats just too uncomfortable and people, generally, don't even prefer that. Same things go for beds. 

When it comes to dining tables, it is better to buy chairs which do not have cushions. And, the chair should be of the right size to the table. You might have noticed in some restaurants which have sofas, if you sit on the sofas, you just fall into it and it is on an uncomfortable level in respect to the table. So, remember that while selecting your dining tables.

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Sit fully back on the chair

Many of us tend to sit just in the front portion of the chair. Sometimes our legs don't reach the ground or on other times, we are just nervous. But, the main part of body taking bearing all that burden is the spinal cord. Not sitting properly on the chair does not give proper support to the hips and the body is not in a relaxed position. Thus, sit with your buttocks touching the back of the chair and keep your spine upright. You don't have to sit poker straight but keeping spine in s reasonably straight position helps in strengthening the spine as well as providing proper support for the body. It is difficult to get used to in the starting so you may slump once every half hour for 2-3 minutes as a relaxation.

Also, it is said that keeping your spine poker straight at 90 degrees from the ground level is not relaxing but strains the spine. So, you can get a chair which has 105-135 degrees angle or you may also use a soft pillow to cushion the small of your back just above the buttock region. Either or doing both of these also helps in relaxing the spine a lot and creates a comfortable position for anyone to sit in.And, don't forget to rest your legs on a stool or something raised above the ground. Generally, a chair which has a holding connecting the legs acts as a good foot stool. 

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Body Postures and Health Issues

Hey guys!!! I was watching Femina Miss India today (I know I'm late so just felt like catching up). One thing which you notice very soon in these kinds of pageant contests is the carriage of the contestants. They not only talk well and look beautiful but carry themselves pretty well and a major part of that comes with their body postures. Body Posture is a study in a itself and it is extremely important to maintain a good posture. A good posture can make you look thinner, appear taller and enhance your personality; not to mention help you in losing your weight and increases your confidence levels. 

Personally, I did try for a week or so maintaining a proper sitting posture with straight back and no slumping at all and honestly, I could tell the difference in my weight, in my height and carriage and also it helped me relieve some of the stress too. Now, I do work on computer a lot and so do a lot of my friends and peers and almost everyone today spends a lot of time on computers. And, of course, its not very easy to sit in front of computers in the swivel chairs so we tend to lose the correct posture after a certain amount of time. And, then there is a matter of office furniture (or a lack of it!!) and we do tend to forget to relax while working on the computer. Yes, concentrating for a long time on computers does play havoc with the minds too in increasing the stress and making us forgetful. So, we forget that we can relax ourselves of the strain by getting up from the chair or looking beyond the screen in front of us. Oh, btw, in case you think getting bigger screen is better, let me tell you bigger the screen more is the strain coz you are very close to the screen. 

So, one of my friend always keeps on complaining about back pain or leg aches or wrist strains or neck-shoulder stiffness and she sits in front of the computer for like 8 hours a day on average. I know its lot less if we compare to some of the software geeks but still it is a lot and I do not blame our work for that coz our work can be divided into two parts - in front of computer and away from computer. So, one just have to remember to stay away from computer when not needed. But, then I am not even blaming my friend!!! Its just that the workplace is designed so. Not fair at all. 

Then, there is another of the lady who has all sorts of medical issues just due to the bad furniture in her office. She is pretty short so when she sits in a swivel chair, her legs don't reach the ground so they just remain hanging. Now, you might be aware that no part of your body should be left hanging because the blood circulation stops in those parts of the body. Same thing happened with her legs and now her legs are pretty much weak. Not fair at all, right?? Offices should take care of their employees too.

Now, the next generation is all addicted to video games and computers and who has any time to go outdoors and play some games and have fun!!! The social life today has become restricted to facebook and twitter. So, body problems are bound to arise. How to prevent all these kinds of problems??? Watch out for the next post.

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