Postural Ergonomics Program
Advice and Support for the Home Worker in a Modern World
✔️ Postural Education
✔️ Exercise Advice
✔️ Productivity Advice
✔️ Ergonomics
Posture is Deteriorating at the Speed of Technology
Ergonomics Used To Be a ‘Should’…
Now Healthy Workspaces Have Never Been More Important
The last two years have seen a structural change in how we work. Many of us are working from home and spending increased hours in poor workplace setup and on conference software. The result is a massive increase in occupationally related health problems including headaches, neck pain and back pain. There has also been a shift in work-life balance with increasingly sedentary lifestyles, reduced fitness and increasing obesity.
Scary Facts!
A study was conducted of 2000 people with the average age of 50, who spend over five hours a day in a chair.
The results showed that any improvement in fitness due to time at the gym was almost completely negated by staying still for a few hours.
So for each hour that the participants weren’t standing, the levels of artery deposits increased by 14%.
(Parker, 2015)
Our Postural Ergonomic Program is a virtual program developed for the post Covid world where people are working from home more, often in isolation and in a situation where work/life separation is becoming ever more challenging.
It is designed to improve occupational health and productivity and combat postural decline caused by long hours of sitting at the computer. As such this in not a program just about desks and chairs, it’s about you…
Having the right furniture and furniture setup plays a part, but more important that the furniture itself is how you use it.
This program is aimed squarely at the home worker, however the principles, education and exercises are just as valuable for people who stand all day, (like retail workers, hospitality workers, nursing staff or hairdressers), and indeed for people who lift all day (like tradesmen, firemen or warehouse workers). This is because the program includes our six week postural education course Perfect Posture Online, as well as an occupational assessment where we tailor our recommendations specifically to your circumstances.
Virtual Occupational Assessment
The first thing we get you to do is take images of your workspace and then we give you a questionnaire to fill out.
Once we know your circumstances and your goals, we conduct a virtual assessment with you.
We look at you ergonomic setup, your equipment, your daily tasks and how efficiently you are performing them, the likelihood of injury and how much exercise you are getting throughout your day. Then we give you a report with an ‘Occupational Score’. This is simply an objective way for us to measure improvement.
The report includes:
-
- recommendations for postural improvement
- specific functional exercises that relate to you and your occupational situation
- Advice and exercises for improving productivity
- Advise on correct furniture and equipment to aid the above
We check in with you once a week to encourage you and answer questions and you are reviewed at six week and given another occupational score.
Postural Reeducation
Part of our recommendations include access to our flagship postural education program Perfect Posture Online.
Perfect Posture Online is a six week program which teaches you how you postural system works and comes with simple exercises to re-educate your posture when sitting standing and lifting.
Seated posture when working at your desk is obviously very important, but increasingly, so is standing when using standup desks – stand up desks are a great innovation, but of course you need to be standing properly. Perfect Posture Online teaches all this and much more.
Functional Exercises
Functional Exercises are exercises designed to keep you fit for your activities of daily living and tie in with the postural Exercises of Perfect Posture Online
Functional Exercises also include activities to promote Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT).
NEAT is the energy expended for everything we do that is not sleeping, eating or sports-like exercise. It ranges from the energy expended walking to work, typing, standing, moving on your chair. Even trivial physical activities increase metabolic rate substantially.
When we sit for long periods our metabolic activity plummets. We set up simple activity and exercises for you to do while working that promotes NEAT.
Productivity Recommendations
No occupational program would be complete without exercises to promote productivity.
Part of our expertise is in neurological rehabilitation, and therefore part of the construction of this program includes exercises for mental acuity, concentration and memory.
Ergonomic Recommendations
This image here provides a welcome reminder, that it doesn’t matter how good or how expensive our workspace equipment is if we don’t use it properly!
As part of your occupational assessment, we have you take images of your workspace, and following your assessment, provide you with a report with specific recommendations on equipment and how to use it correctly. This includes, chairs, stand up desks, monitor adjustments, etc.
Prolonged sitting, in combination with awkward postures, increases the likelihood of lower back pain.
The two most frequently cited risk factors for back pain are occupational sitting and prolonged static sitting with a reduced lumbar lordosis (flattening of the lower back).
Makhsous 2009
If you haven’t visited us before
Dr Tony Tranfield D.O.
is an Osteopath, practicing on the Northern Beaches of Sydney since 1996. He holds post graduate training in neurological rehabilitation and computerised posturography. He has a special interest in posture, balance and movement, and has developed specific diagnostics, rehabilitation, therapy for posture and balance related problems.
A big part of what we do is education, and Dr Tranfield has created an online video education program for postural stability called ‘Perfect Posture Online’, which was developed from years of postural rehabilitation using computerised posturography.
Following the pandemic he has release the Postural Ergonomic Program designed to help people who are confined to working from home or who find that they are working from home a lot more. Dr Tranfield is also a Postural Ergonomist.
You can see his full biography here
21/20 Wellington Street
NARRABEEN NSW 2101
AUSTRALIA
02 9913 7900
Beaches Osteopathic Centre Copyright © 2022.
Our Privacy Policy
Your privacy is very important to us. As part of the normal operation of this site, Beaches Osteopathic Centre may collect certain information from you. Beaches Osteopathic Centre is subject to the requirements of applicable Australian law and strives to meet the requirements of the Australian National Principles. Our Privacy Policy guidelines are here…