How to overcome office stress

ONE of the “unfair” excuses for not staying fit or visiting the gym for most people is too much office activities. Well, the good news is that the gym has decided to visit you right at work.

For the benefit of both the organisation and yourself, squeezing in time for exercise during work hours could help improve your level of productivity and save you from muscle, joint, arm pains altogether.

Sitting for long hours is boring

No research has ever favoured sitting for long hours. In fact, studies have shown that sitting for a long period of time could be a window to obesity, increased blood sugar, high blood pressure, excess body fats, among others.

A three to five minutes timeout for stretch would do just fine in optimising the metabolic activities of the body. It is also important for flexibility, range of motion and injury prevention, warming up the body cells and preventing gloominess.

In the event of long hours of meetings where sitting is the only option, then ensure that while you keep your eyes on the files and documents, keep your legs busy with under-the-desk exercises. See that you sit tall on your chair; create space to stretch your legs at full length for between 20 and 30 seconds, sit on one leg and stretch the other and then interchange.

Break gaze on the screen at intervals

For a desk office job or other jobs that require constant relations with your laptop or desktop, taking a blink timeout is your best bet to keep your vision from unwanted eye defects.

Dr Robert Abel Jr, an Ophthalmologist, explained that the best way to overcome the computer vision syndrome is by using proper lighting.

“When using a computer, try to dim the ambient lighting to about half of what is normal for an office. You may want to use less bulbs or bulbs at a lower wattage for this effect. Also, try to position your monitor so that any exposed windows are at a right angle to the computer screen.

“Another way to minimise eye strain from the computer is to take a series of short, five minute breaks throughout your work day. Stand up, stretch and focus on things other than your computer screen,” he said.

Consider the water therapy

Water has been performing the lifesaving task excellently from the word go. In the confine of your office with head buried in office activities, water therapy would adequately and readily reset the body to default.

Drinking water at intervals while thrashing out work assignment could go a long way in reducing dehydration and dizziness.

Water can also help optimise office performance by energising the body cells. Have you ever felt a part of your body disconnected from the other part after working long hours or sitting too long in a position? Water might be all you need to restore the body activity efficiently.

Ensure a pain-free sitting position

This is one of the hardest rules to obey during office time. It takes only a blink of an eye for one to break the sitting position rule while engrossed with work. Sometimes, the documents or computer gets so fascinating that we tend to move closer as if we want to pick the letters out of the computer screen.

In order to prevent back pain, therapists advise that it is expedient to always support your back while sitting by adjusting your chair so your lower back is properly supported.

You should also strongly consider adjusting your chair height, so you can use the keyboard with your wrists and forearms straight and level with the floor.

If you have to lean forward, ensure that your elbow is well rested on the tabletop, providing support to your lower jaw and also ensure that you place your screen at eye level.

Avoid heavy food for lunch

Heavy lunch would not be a great idea while still having productive hours to spend at work. The brain and body concentrate more on digesting the food and you might end up sleeping off the rest of office hours. Though high energy food is recommended, it doesn’t have to come in ‘mountainous’ form.