Two months ago Optimov had a giveaway ‘competition’ on Facebook. The prize was an Ergonomics workshop for office workers, carried out by our talented founder and physiotherapist – José Cerdan. We had people participating from all over Europe, so we decided to chose 2 winners, one in Denmark and one abroad, where we would carry out the workshop over skype. Unfortunately, we could not get in touch with the winner outside of Denmark, so we only carried out 1 workshop. The lucky winner from Denmark was a young professional from the Danish paint producing company Flügger and we organized the workshop there last week.
In today’s post, we would like to let you in Flügger’s Ergonomics workshop and share a few tips and photos from the event, which were a big hit among the participants. Therefore, this giveaway is definitely something we will repeat again in the future, so beware of our Facebook page!
Ergonomics At Flügger
The workshop started with a 30 minutes introduction to the principles of Ergonomics. After José was done with the slideshow, it was time for the practical part, which was also the one the participants appreciated the most. To make it more relevant, José chose a participant to come out and sit in front of everyone, while being examined by José (see photo below).
José examining one of the workshop participants to establish sore spots from sitting at a desk for a long time.
He examined the main points that can get sore if you are not having optimal ergonomics at work, or if you forget to stretch your muscles. It turned out that half of those spots were sore at both participants José examined. Despite the soreness both of them enjoyed the short massage they got and who can blame them. 😀
Stretching at Work
The next part of the workshop was stretching exercises. As mentioned above, it is very important to do a few stretches several times a day, to prevent pains and improve your posture. “One of the most important ones is the pectoral stretch. The reason for that is due to the fact that this muscle is contracted most of the time while we work on a computer. This makes the muscle tight and results in a hunch in our upper back”. Luckily, there is a very easy way to stretch out the pecs, and this is one of the stretches José showed at Flügger (see picture below).
José showing a pectoral wall stretch
“You place your arm along the wall, elbow bent at 90-degree angle, shift your weight onto the front foot and lean forward until you feel a stretch in your muscle”. Everyone was groaning, while stretching at the wall (see photo bellow), and we bet that most of you, readers, will also say ‘ouch’, if you try it. But not to worry, it is the good type of ‘ouch’ and if you do it often enough then it might eventually disappear. Not to mention the improvements of your posture you will achieve. So, definitely, do yourself the favor and stretch. 🙂
Ergonomics workshop participants performing a pectoral wall stretch.
Another at-work-appropriate stretch José showed was a neck stretch you could do while sitting on your chair. “You hold your chair with one hand, the other one goes behind your head and holds your head. Then pull the head in the opposite direction, while holding the shoulders parallel to the floor with the help of the hand holding the chair. You should feel a stretch at your neck and/or shoulder. This is an important stretch, preventing and relieving neck pain, as well as headache”. Both stretches José showed are easy to do at work, take no time to perform and will ease a lot of the tension in your muscles.
José showing and guiding the participants to do a neck stretch while at work.
We ended the session with some questions and answers, where one of the participants asked for a good stretch for the hips, which she can do at work. “This is also an important area to stretch, due to the extended time we spent sitting at our desks. You can do this at your desk, you just have to lift it to the level of your hips, bend your knee to 90-degree angle and place on the table. Then lean forward until your feel the stretch in the glutes”, see photo below.
José helping one of the participants to do a hip stretch.
This exercise seemed a bit untypical for the office for the of the participants, but that is due to the fact that stretching or exercising at work is not so common. Hopefully, this will change soon, and we, at Optimov, will try our best to contribute to this.
For more useful health tips and giveaways, follow our Facebook page. If you would like an Ergonomics workshop at your office, do not hesitate to contact us.
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