Healthy in the office: keep typing

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Office stallions or amateur athletes have one thing in common: the muscles hurt when they are overloaded. And as with sport, exercise to loosen up the muscles in the office is the best medicine - but in this study more than you think.

If the neck or back hurts in everyday office life, an incorrect work posture is often the cause. From a medical point of view, the desk offender is not that different from the athlete, although he hardly takes a step. If the muscles are tensed for too long and no longer supplied with sufficient blood, regeneration suffers and the muscles start to hurt. Researchers led by Julie Côté from the Canadian McGill University in Montreal chose an unusual way to counter the tension in their study with office workers - they placed the office test persons on a treadmill in front of their work equipment.

Movement lowers muscle activity

Twenty healthy participants had to complete a 90-minute writing exercise for the test - either sitting down or while walking on a treadmill. This was placed in such a way that the test subjects could type on the running tape. The scientists measured the muscle activity in the neck, shoulders, forearms and wrists. The result: With the active writers, in contrast to their classically positioned colleagues, the muscle activity was less and more variable and the muscles less tense.

“Bodies are made to move,” is the simple message from Côté.As long as treadmills are still waiting to be introduced into everyday office life, she advises office workers to move and change their posture every few minutes.

The extent to which staying on the treadmill had an impact on work performance was not examined in more detail in the study.

Prevention is the best medicine

Doctors recommend regular exercise and back-friendly exercise to prevent back pain. The term "back-friendly sport" does not mean specific types of sport - it is more about the correct daily dose, a targeted training structure and good technique. Targeted strength training to strengthen the core muscles in the core area is particularly effective. Because the stronger the back and abdominal muscles are, the more they help the spine with its support function. Such a strong muscle corset can even prevent back pain. Experienced sports doctors or physiotherapists can advise here.

Source: Eur J Appl Physiol. 2015 Apr 5. [Epub ahead of print]

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