3 Tips for Preserving Muscle and Joint Health at Work

Today’s guest blog was written by Claire Checovich, Exercise & Ergonomics Specialist in the Promega Wellness Center.

The human body is amazing – it can climb towering cliffs, run hundreds of miles, and move many times its own weight.

It can also be annoying – how many of us have been injured just by sleeping or sitting in a funny position?

We’ve almost certainly all experienced the latter, whether we’re hunched over books and papers or staring at a computer for hours on end. That’s where ergonomics and biomechanics comes in.

Continue reading “3 Tips for Preserving Muscle and Joint Health at Work”

Standing Up For Your Heart

My new standing desk! Still have some work to do to get everything set up the way I want it, but...

I’m standing as I write this. I’m ecstatic about it. After what I thought might be received as a harebrained or frivolous request, our Facilities folks came yesterday and raised one side of my L-shaped desk to about 40″ high. Add one anti-fatigue mat which is cushily supporting me as we speak, and a stool-height chair (for occasional use) yet to be ordered, and I’m hoping my desk and I have the beginnings of beautiful, renewed relationship.

Maybe some reading this are wondering, “What’s the big deal?” Maybe you already get to stand up for at least part of your day. I’m a software developer, so, unless you count a few trips to the bathroom and the water cooler and walking to meeting rooms, I really don’t have a lot of opportunity to stand. Maybe you just really love sitting. I’d just gotten sick of it. I’d go home after sitting all day long and feel exhausted, my body aching like I’d spent the day in the workout room, my back feeling like I was closer to 85 than 35 years old. I’d think, “That’s weird…I haven’t even really done anything today.”

Yeah. Precisely. That turns out to be a big part of the problem. Continue reading “Standing Up For Your Heart”