MINNEAPOLIS — When you're working from home, the choice of furniture is slim pickings. Not everyone has a sweet office set-up or chair to sink into.
With a lack of choices when it comes to places to put ourselves, people are seeing an array of issues, at least according to Dr. Neil Crane. Crane is with Core Health Chiropractic in Minneapolis and is seeing patients as his business has been deemed essential.
"A lot of upper back pain, neck pain, headaches, shoulder tension, just a cumulative stress effect for sitting in a lousy position for the last month," Crane listed. He said he's trying his best to cautiously tend to the needs of aching backs and sore necks.
"I would say last week, we hit that threshold for a lot of people," he said. "Where it's been a month of them sitting at the kitchen counter or sitting at their dining room table, trying to make do. Trying to do their best and starting to hit that threshold of pain and starting to feel really uncomfortable."
Crane said right now, the best thing you can do is avoiding staying in the same position for more than a few hours. If you have a standing desk, it would be ideal.
"Start your day standing maybe-- that's a couple of hours in the morning-- as you get close to the noon hour, maybe sit down for a few hours," he said. "Take that rest, go for a walk, come back after lunch. Stand for a couple of hours and as you're getting towards the end of your day, you get tired, you can sit back down."
A standing desk doesn't have to be official either. Anything that can raise your monitors and screens to eye-level, like a stack of books, is helpful. As for chairs, if you have the choice, always choose one with a back.
"Stools I think encourage you to slump forward a bit more because you don't have anything to lean against," Crane said. "I would say something with a back, a standard dining chair, making sure that the height of that chair is getting you to position to eye level with the computer."
Crane also added that many of us underestimate the toll stress takes on our bodies. Everyone is stressed right now, and with it being constant due to the coronavirus, Crane said it's important to take breaks by going on walks during the day.
Although he said it's nice that people are socially distancing and trying to avoid going to essential businesses unless it's crucial, he added that his business is open for a good reason.
"Big part of us being essential and being open is to keep people out of primary care," he said. "Keep them out of urgent care offices and out of the ER. That's the threshold we want to see you at. You need to be acutely in pain to come out and take that risk. If it's something you can manage at home, or do a telehealth visit for, we encourage you to do that."
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