I've come to a terrifying conclusion after working in an office for the past six years, after my long college 'career' of peddling wares in various shops that required me to stand and walk all day...desks and computers are teaming up to kill me. Yes this post-apocalyptic world known as a 'corporate job' is slowly destroying my once strong and healthy physique that thought nothing of staying out until 2am or bodysurfing waves that would now bend my weak spine into thirds. At the tender age of 29 I feel as if I've lived someone else's life crammed into an uncomfortable desk chair and training my eyes to a screen 8 hours or more a day, and it's definitely taking its toll. So why, in this age of teleconferences smart phones, Skype and file sharing, is it required that we kill ourselves by the act of sitting and staring at one spot all day? It's because computers are robots and they are trying to kill us without us ever suspecting that the simple act of staying put leaves huge stress on our bodies that were designed to move, exert, and flourish outdoors.
The Death of a Spine
It all started harmlessly enough, it felt great to come into work after a rough Thursday night of partying and just...sit. And work. And stare at a screen. But slowly over the years, I've had one ailment after another, from spinal subluxation, constant headaches, and even threw out my back for no reason, leaving me bedridden for four days. All this in my 20s! I can't even imagine what my less than resilient body will react to when I'm reaching the hopeful end of my office career in my 60s or 70s. Chairs are cruel mistreses, they lure you in with comfort, but humans are not meant to sit still for hours at a time, causing our spines to get out of order and the crucial muscles that hold it in place to atrophy. I've had session after session with chiropractors just to get everything 'back to normal', along with an exercise routine on the pilates ball to re-bulid the core strength my years in a chair have destroyed. The solution? Putting more emphasis on not only exercise, but regular movement during work hours, which includes building my OWN standing desk that I can switch to with ease when I feel my back and butt rejecting my latent posture, talking a daily walking break, and sitting on my balance ball when watching TV at home instead of flopping on the couch whenever possible. The chair is still my foe, but a more manageable one now.
Getting on My Nerves
Oh yes, and with injury to the spine comes a host of other fun afflictions! These have included stressful bouts of both jaw clenching and eye twitching, from both the stresses of a normal job but also not being aware of how our spinal health can affect everything about our bodies. Staring at a screen constantly while wearing contacts is hardly a picnic, as they constantly dry out or make it hard to focus far away when you finally take a break. The eye twitching went away on its own, hopefully due to my methods to reduce stress along with warm eye compresses at night. The body is a mysterious thing that only Google knows the answer to when I look up my symptoms and try to use home remedies. And the jaw clenching was fixed by yet more visits to the chiropractor, as he moved my mandibles in place like I was a shark about to swallow its prey whole.
Working in an office has been the unhealthiest undertaking I have ever endured, thank goodness I'm not a coal miner or deep sea crab fisherman! Regardless of the lack of danger or even remote excitement in the corporate world, these seemingly small afflictions have an easy answer...don't require your employees to be in their seats constantly! At least encourage one day a week to work from home, provide standing desk options, and encourage walking breaks without making people feel guilty of taking some time for their health. Even looking out the window to give my eyes a rest makes me feel like if someone caught me, they would think I've been slacking and staring into space for an hour. There's no getting away from computers in this age of technology, but we can still ditch the chairs and all the pain they cause us down the road.
