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Today’s fast-paced life leaves us with little time to focus on being fit and healthy. But did you know that simply ensuring right postures could work wonders for you? |
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 We all love our playstations and gameboys, and just can’t live without our cellphones and laptops. Our day is incomplete unless we lie sprawled on the couch for at least an hour watching TV or reading a book. Most of the time a phone is jammed between our ear and shoulder while we frantically take notes. And at the end of it all, we rush to an orthopaedic surgeon complaining of a neck, back or wrist ache. After doling out the requisite creams and sprays, the orthopaedic surgeon also gives some sage advice on how we can avoid all this by improving our posture. And one way to do this is ergonomics. But what is ergonomics and what does it have to do with our aches and pains?
Ergonomics is derived from two Greek words: ergon, meaning 'work' and nomos, meaning 'natural laws'. It is commonly thought of as related to designing of work areas to maximize the efficiency and quality of work. In reality, however, it finds application in almost everything which involves people. From getting put of bed in the mornings to getting back to bed at night, ergonomics plays a huge role in your everyday life. It is applicable in your day at work, at the gym and at home. It is all about a correct posture and using products that put minimum stress on your eyes and bones, muscles, joints and tendons (musculoskeletal system).
The basics
The principles of ergonomic help reduce stress and eliminate potential injuries and disorders caused due to the stress on muscles, resulting from bad posture and repeated tasks. In recent years, ergonomists have attempted to define postures, which minimise unnecessary static work and reduce the forces acting on the body. We can significantly reduce our risk of injury if we adhere to the following ergonomic principles:
The hardest hit
Although we all suffer from ergonomic-related issues in one way or another, there are some groups of people who are particularly vulnerable. These include students, office-goers and housewives.  Students and office-goers face the greatest problems as they spend most of their time hunched over a desk, writing or tapping on a keyboard. They rarely pay attention to how they sit, often sitting hunchbacked or in such a way that the mid-back is hanging, and rarely get up and stretch every now and then. The result is twinges and pain in the wrist, neck, shoulder and back. As Dr Dilip Tanna, orthopaedic surgeon, Jaslok Hospital says, "Many of my patients, who belong to the student community, suffer from muscular tension in the neck and the scapular regions. This is a result of improper posture that each one has when sitting in front of computers." Long hours on cellphones and iPods can also lead to stress in the fingers.Housewives in particular need to pay attention while working in the kitchen and cleaning around the house. The average Indian countertop is around 30 inches high, which is either too high or too low for most housewives. The result is excessive strain on the knees and back, resulting in arthritis and backaches. Also, while cleaning the house, excessive strain is put on the knee joint, again leading to arthritis.
Correcting the problem
The best way to correct ergonomic-related problems is to maintain the correct posture. One way of checking this is the Alexander Technique, developed between 1890 and 1900 by F Matthias Alexander, a Shakespearean orator, when he realised that an unnecessary stiffening of his body was resulting in problems with his voice. The technique can be described as a simple and a practical educational method which alerts people to ways in which they are misusing their bodies, and how their everyday habits of work may be harming them. It teaches people how to avoid work habits which create excessive amounts of static work and how to reduce the amount of unnecessary muscular force applied to their bodies.
Using ergonomically-designed products is another way of reducing stress-related injuries but these can only help to a certain extent. “Ergonomically-designed products are mass-produced and hence cannot be used by everybody,” points out Dr KH Sancheti, chairman and chief orthopaedic surgeon, Sancheti Institute for Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation. “The best way to obtain relief from posture-related aches and pains is regular exercise to maintain the back, neck, shoulders and knees. Physiotherapy also helps to an extent,” he adds.
What’s most important here is the need to realise that there is a problem and that the power lies in our hands to correct it. The creams, ointments, sprays can only give temporary relief. Making a conscious effort to correct our posture is what is needed for trouble free days.
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