Is your office chair causing you back pain?

With so many of the UK workforce working from home, it’s fair to say the nations posture has taken a nose-dive. Our top tip for working from home comfortably is to invest in an office chair that relieves back pain.

ITV did a feature on it: Don’t let your back lock up in lockdown!

• About 80% of adults experience low back pain at some point in their lifetimes.
• Back pain is the second most common cause of absence from work in Great Britain.
• On average an employee with back pain takes 17 days off to recover from an episode.
• Treating all types of back pain costs the NHS more than £1 billion per year.

Bupa reported a newfound enthusiasm for exercise sees Brits upping their intake and trying new sports. But 7.2 million eager exercisers have potentially been hurt or injured during lockdown, with men twice as likely as women to injure themselves.

Working from home is tough enough, so if you’re carrying an injury (back injuries are common) the need for decent, fit-for-purpose office furniture is increasingly important. This quote from Gary sums it up:

Prolonged sitting, even in the best ergonomically designed chairs is a challenge. But sitting on a dining chair is even more of a challenge, because it doesn’t assist posture or provide any support – which you need if sitting for longer periods. An incorrect posture can lead to some parts of your back becoming overstretched, which will eventually lead to pain and discomfort. This can also have a knock-on effect to the nerves in your back, which don’t have room to move, meaning they get squashed and could cause sciatica, pins and needles, and numbness down your arms into your fingers.

Back specialist Garry Trainer (ITV Feature)

If you’re prone to back injuries, we recommend asking your employer to carry out a workplace audit. This will ensure your office chair is setup correctly, need for a foot-rest reviewed, desk height checked and so on.

If you’ve been working from home since March, back pain could be a symptom of sitting on a makeshift office chair. Time to take charge of your posture!

Team leaders: here are some affordable back care chairs to fit out your remote working teams with: