Do you need help with coccyx pain?

Premium Cool-Gel Seat Cushion – #KensingtonWellnessReview

I’m taking part in the Kensington #WellnessAmbassador program, and as a result I have very kindly been sent a seat cushion to trial and review.

Initial Feelings

Would you like to know the very honest, first thing I said when I sat on it?! … “Ooooooooh… That. Is. Comfy”. This seat cushion features luxuriously soft memory foam, which gives you that instant feeling of comfort. In addition, I have been using it for just over a week now for a minimum of 6 hours a day, every day, and there is no evidence of any compression. In my opinion, some memory foam seat pads or additional cushions compress too easily over the course of a day, or even a few hours, and then the user is left with sensing the harder base of the seat (often MDF or plastic), negating the reason for recommending memory foam in the first place.

The coccyx cut out area is wide enough to reduce contact and pressure at the base of the spine, which is very helpful for those that may have fractured their tailbone or have been diagnosed with Coccydynia. I have seen many times, users reporting an intense shooting pain in their tailbone that occurs when switching from sitting to standing, and seat pads or cushions that feature this cut-away area are usually my go to recommendation to help prevent pressure build up and address those symptoms.

The contours at the front of the seat helps with lower limb placement (so you are less inclined to cross your legs!) and also helps to ensure circulation is not restricted. This provides a similar effect to the waterfall or hinged front edges that are apparent in good quality office chairs. In addition, this can help to elevate your hips slightly in relation to your knees, reducing the risk of posterior pelvic tilt, which can help to encourage a strong and stable upright posture.

Helpful extras

It also features a couple of very handy extras:

1. A carry handle to help you use it in a number of locations; such as in the car, on the sofa or at the dining table.

2. Removable cover that is machine washable.

3. Non-slip backing so you do not slide down the chair’s seat.

Considerations

Now there are a few things to consider when using a seat cushion…

Firstly, if you are sitting in a chair that is not adjustable in height, you may need to elevate your working surface and use a footrest to account for the slight increase in sitting height, otherwise you may be sitting too high in relation to your equipment and lean over your desk, and your feet may come off the floor. If you are in an office chair however, you should be able to lower the chair by the thickness of the cushion and be at the same height as you were previously.

Secondly, it can misalign where the lumbar support meets your lower back. In a non-adjustable chair, you may wish to use a lumbar support cushion in conjunction with any seat cushion, so you can ensure adequate support in the small of your back at exactly the right height for you. If you are sitting in an office chair, you should be able to raise the height of the back rest/lumbar support, again by the thickness of the cushion, to account for the increase in sitting height.

Practical application in the WFH era

A very common issue I am seeing with people still working from home is that the dining room table is too high for their sitting height and shoulder elevation occurs. By using a seat cushion to boost the sitting height, you can help to address this issue. This cushion can help in these circumstances too!

One paragraph summary

The Premium Cool-Gel Seat Cushion is a very effective and comfortable seat cushion that does exactly what it is set out to do. I would not hesitate in recommending this product to those that present with discomfort in their coccyx, or simply would like extra comfort from their seat, or perhaps need a boost in sitting height.

P.s. please excuse the cat hair, she also likes the cushion!

Product Review - Standing Platforms

I recently posted a poll on my LinkedIn page, asking my contacts what sort of content they would like to see. 50% of the voters opted for Ergonomic Product Reviews. So here we are…

I scanned my workstation to get inspiration on what to talk about, and following a recent discussion with Darren Kerr, a Podiatrist and Posture Coach who specialises in Wonky Bodies, I thought my Standing Platform may be of interest.

MoovRite Rocking Standing Platform and Footrest

I use this item from Posturite, and there are a number of others out there to consider - often advertised as balance boards - such as this one from Amazon.

So what are my thoughts?

Pros:

• Large surface area (450 x 400 mm) to allow for comfortable feet positioning about hip width apart (for most people), in either orientation.

• Anti-fatigue matting built in to the surface to help absorb pressure at the contact points, and encourage very fine subtle movements of the lower limbs and feet to help redistribute that pressure.

• Can be used as a low profile rocking footrest for those that don’t quite have solid contact underfoot with the floor when seated, which can help to stimulate circulation and reduce static loading.

• Can be used in either orientation; movement from front to back or side to side. Front to back can help to recruit the muscles that work to balance the pelvis to support the spine in its strongest position. Side to side can help to loosen the muscles that assist rotation of the hip joints (as one example) that could help improve your gait. Either way, dynamic working can help to activate other muscle groups that aren’t normally stimulated when sitting or standing, helping to send oxygen and nutrients around the body, whilst taking away the build up of waste products.

• It can help to maintain productivity, by moving without having to move away from the work area. However, don’t forget that a visual break is very important too!

• It is strong, yet lightweight, so you can move it into position with your feet, without having to bend under the desk.

Cons:

• If wanting to be used as a footrest, it is not height adjustable and hence may not provide the user with full contact underfoot.

• Some may say the price is prohibitive - however it is important to remember that this is almost a 4-in-1 product: standing platform front to back, standing platform side to side, rocking footrest and anti-fatigue mat.

• May not be suitable for those with altered vestibular sensory processing, unless advised by a medical professional as part of a rehab programme.

Overall, there is no denying that movement is key to any good workstation set up. With static postures, aches and pains are likely to begin and/or increase. Any form of encouragement towards a more dynamic workstation set up can only be a good thing. Therefore, in case my longer list of pro’s in comparison to the con’s didn’t already tell you, I highly rate the use of a Standing Platform, as a means to increase movement, stimulate circulation, activate a wider range of the body’s muscles and help to enable you to work more comfortably. As with everything, I would still encourage you to move away from the desk regularly to help with visual and mental breaks too!

I would also encourage you to check out Darren’s company PostureFit, he has some great advice on helping to rebalance the body to reduce aches and pains.

Arm rests - are they really helpful?

A question I often find myself asking individuals is … ‘Do you like having arm rests on your office chair?’

I would say that 95% of the time, the answer is … ‘Oh, I don’t know, I’ve never really thought about it. But now I do, I guess I rarely use them, and I often find they get in the way’.

The more we talk about the arm rests (or handles as I hear many people refer to them), the more I find individuals remind themselves of times where they couldn’t get close to the desk because of their chairs arm rests, or where they have had to lower them so far that they were never in use, or they couldn’t tuck the chair under their table at the end of the working day which resulted in an obstruction and frustration (and so on and so on with other negative thoughts) that they end up answering my original question with … ‘No, I don’t like arm rests’.

An example of fixed arm rests.

Our arms are surprisingly heavy … Some research suggests that one arm can weigh between 4 and 6% of your total body weight.

Why do I ask this question?

I want to understand the barriers that user’s have found with arm rests, because believe it or not, our arms are surprisingly heavy, and the provision of suitable arm rests can help to reduce tension that this weight can otherwise impose.

Some research suggests that one arm can weigh between 4 and 6% of your total body weight. So for someone that weighs 70kg, that could be as much as 4kg - the equivalent of roughly 10 cans of baked beans - per arm! That is a lot of weight for the neck and shoulders to bear over the course of a working day, especially if your desk set up is not optimal and encourages poor upper limb postures that increases static loading and the onset of muscle fatigue.

Why could your arms adopt awkward postures?

• Input devices (keyboard and mouse) being positioned too far away.

• Repetitive overreach for other items such as paperwork or phone (or that important glass of water).

• Chair height set too low, with the sitting elbow height lower than the working surface, encouraging shoulder elevation or elbow extension.

• Or indeed, chair height set too high, encouraging extension at the elbows (ultimately leading to forward postures).

• Arm rests set too high, shrugging the shoulders upwards and leading to adaptive changes to the shoulder muscles and tendons.

• Arm rests far longer than your ‘abdominal thickness’ - odd term, but essentially an arm rest should not be any longer than you are from your spine to your belly button. If the arm rests are too long, they will prevent you from sitting close to your equipment.

How could these issues be addressed?

The first few points are often very easy to address with education on a suitable set up, such as encouraging close placement of the keyboard and mouse or adjusting the chair height so your elbows are level with the working surface. However, the last few points are often difficult to address, especially when the arm rests are fixed, which sadly is the case with so many lower cost chairs! It is also usually these fixed arm rests that user’s have experience on, which fuels the negative thoughts towards them.

By having ‘fully adjustable’ arm rests on a chair, you are more likely to ensure suitable upper limb support, acting as an extension of your desk surface, helping to hold those 10 cans of baked beans.

What should you look for in good quality arm rests:

• Height, width and depth adjustability - this can help to position the arm rests just below your elbows for optimal support.

• Rear positioning - a lot of arm rests are fixed to the centre of the seat pad, so when you adjust the seat depth to account for your thigh length, the arm rests move with this which often impacts close positioning to the desk. Arm rests that are fixed to the rear structure of the seat mean that they are not affected by other changes.

• Attachment to the base or seat of the chair, not the back rest - those arm rests that attach to the back rest mean that the angle of them will change as the angle of the back rest changes. This could result in the arm rests adopting an incline and no longer being parallel to the surface of the desk, which may not be comfortable.

It is also very helpful to check the the range of adjustability on arm rests in comparison to your body measurements:

• the arm rest height should be equivalent to your sitting elbow height

• the arm pad length should be equivalent to your abdominal thickness

• the arm rest width should be equivalent to your elbow to elbow width

So… are arm rests helpful?

YES! My personal opinion is that arm rests are by no means fundamental, but they certainly can be helpful.

However, as with all things ergonomic, they need to be right for you, otherwise they can be a hinderance. You are more likely going to get them right when they are fully adjustable, so you can overcome those barriers you may have previously experienced.

If you are experiencing upper limb discomfort whilst working at your computer, please do get in touch. A workstation assessment can help to address those discomforts and make recommendations to help you work more comfortably!

A discussion with The Agency Collective

The Agency Collective is ‘an international peer support community for agency owners’ and I recently had the pleasure of talking to their members (of which there is in the region of 350!).

We spoke about the most common working from home workstation set ups, which I have been seeing a lot of during my remote assessments. We also discussed some simple solutions that can be made with everyday items around the house, plus, of course, the importance of regular changes in posture.

Please see a link to the short blog post I wrote for their website here.

Cost Benefit Analysis - Is a DSE Assessment worth it?

The simple answer … yes!

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The Office for National Statistics (ONS) latest research states that ‘an estimated 141.4 million working days were lost because of sickness or injury in the UK in 2018, the equivalent to 4.4 days per worker.’

In the same year, the ONS found that the medium full-time weekly wage was £569, equating to a day rate of £113.80.

This data could suggest that an employer lost £500.72 per employee for their sickness absences.

The ONS also showed that occupations that likely resulted in prolonged use of DSE had higher sickness absence rates, such as ‘Administrative and secretarial occupations’ in comparison to ‘Skilled trades occupations’.

They state that three of the most common reasons for sickness absence in 2018 were:

• musculoskeletal problems (including back pain and neck and upper limb problems)

• “other” conditions (including accidents)

• mental health conditions (including stress, depression and anxiety)

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Sadly, we know that musculoskeletal problems, fatigue and stress are all risks associated with DSE use. Therefore, it goes without saying that if those risks were assessed and mitigated against, the prevalence of them would drop and absenteeism reduce.

So is it worth it?

Again, yes!

By investing in a thorough one-off DSE Assessment for an employee that not only addresses the risks but educates the user to adopt long-term healthy habits, you can save approximately £500 per employee per year in lost days work.

Please get in touch here to discuss your requirements.

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Source data found here and here.

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DSE - what does it mean?

DSE stands for Display Screen Equipment. This could refer to any alphanumeric or graphic display screen, regardless of the display process involved - i.e. a computer or a laptop.

DSE legislation refers to a few other definitions that are also worth understanding.

User and Operator

This refers to anyone who habitually uses display screen equipment as a significant part of their normal work. The difference between a user and an operator usually comes down to an employed person as a user, rather than self-employed person as an operator.

What defines significant? The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) suggest that anyone that uses DSE daily, for more than an hour is considered a DSE User/Operator.

Workstation

 A workstation is made up of:

• DSE - i.e. a computer or laptop

• Input devices - i.e. keyboard and mouse

• Peripheral items - i.e. telephone and paper work

• The immediate work environment around the DSE - i.e. temperature, noise and space

Why do I need to know all this?

Sadly, working with DSE poses a number of risks, such as musculoskeletal aches and pains, eye and eyesight issues, fatigue and stress. DSE legislation states that:

• Every employer shall perform a suitable and sufficient analysis of workstations

• Any assessment made by an employer shall be reviewed if it is suspected to be no longer valid or if there has been a significant change - i.e. new location, job role or new equipment

• The employer shall reduce the risks identified in consequence of an assessment to the lowest extent reasonably practicable

• Every employer shall ensure that any workstation for DSE use meets the schedule of minimum requirements

By assessing the risks and making reasonable adjustments, we can reduce those risks mentioned above. If you have any questions on how to do this for your employees, please get in touch.

NexStand - K2 Portable Laptop Stand

I was very kindly sent the #Nexstand K2 Portable Laptop Stand to help enhance my home workstation set up. Nexstand have been in business since 2016 and I honestly can’t believe I have only recently discovered them.

The K2 is a great piece of kit. It’s height adjustable, compact, lightweight, affordable and very sturdy. My experience of ergonomic products also tells me I would be hard pushed to find another cost-effective, portable laptop stand that has such a vast range of height adjustability. For example, the top of my 13” 2011 MacBook Pro screen can raise to 500 mm from the desktop!

If I were to be critical, there is only one reason I would make a recommendation for an alternative laptop stand; that is if the user reported to regularly work with paper documents for copy-typing/referencing tasks, as the K2 does not feature a built-in document holder like some others on the market. But overall, since my discovery of Nexstand, this has been my go-to recommendation to help reduce the risks of awkward, forward postures that are so often associated with laptop use.

Thank you Nexstand for sending me this product, it is an effective solution for so many!

(Featuring Mia the cat, the sleepiest colleague I've ever had!)

Kneeling Stools - Should you buy one?

I don’t know about you, but recently the sponsored posts on my social media seem to be flooded with adverts for kneeling stools. Coincidentally, a large number of those I have remotely assessed working from home over the past few weeks have also been using kneeling stools, and it’s got me thinking…

Should you buy one?

Above are some of the sponsored posts I have seen recently. They make wonderful claims such as ‘relieving neck strain’, ‘direct vision improves efficiency of work’ and ‘right sitting position prevents mouse syndrome’ (I’m not entirely sure the elephant was necessary, but we’ll bypass that!). However, what does that all mean?!

Let’s talk about the advantages:

• It encourages activation of the core stability muscles to help protect the spine and facilitate an upright working posture.

• It enables a nice open angle at the pelvis, reducing tension in the hip flexors whilst also helping to support the natural S shape of the spine.

• In limited spaces, they can tuck quite nicely underneath your workstation at the end of the working day - especially important for a lot of us working at home!

• It may be more aesthetically pleasing to some users, in comparison to your standard office chair.

• In a non-socially distanced world, it can be quite the talking point when friends or family are over to visit. This is great at getting people to think more about their workstation set up and sitting habits.

However, there are a few disadvantages too:

• The sitting load is not evenly distributed over the sitting bones and the belly of the hamstring muscles, and is instead directed mostly over the knee joints. This may not be ideal for those that have other conditions affecting the knees or lower limbs.

• Not all the options on the market have the option of adjusting the sitting height. This may mean that your sitting elbow height is not suitable for your desk height. Subsequently, you may be encouraged to either elevate your shoulders to use your equipment if the stool is too low, or lean over the desk if the stool is too high.

• Not all options feature a swivel gas stem, this means that you may be more inclined to twist at your workstation to retrieve paperwork for example, or refer to a secondary monitor. (On a side note, I have been re-watching Downton Abbey in my spare time and noticed that the writers made reference to the Dowager Countess of Grantham’s surprise to the novelty of sitting in a chair that swivelled in 1912. Granted, it was still wooden and not adjustable in other ways, but at least it could swivel!).

• It can be fatiguing. Sitting with your core muscles activated can be tiring and this may lead to poor, slouched postures - the complete opposite of what a kneeling stool is designed to do! With slouched postures comes an increase in load and pressure through the spine, which may increase discomfort in the lower back.

So, should you buy one?

Frustratingly, I think the answer is… it depends.

It depends on:

• Finding one that is as adjustable as possible with a swivel gas stem. Look for seat height, seat tilt and knee pad distance adjustments. The majority of claims in the adverts above will only be true if you can adjust the stool to the right height for the desk (and then position the desktop equipment suitably for your sitting height).

• How long you would use it for. Personally, I would not recommend any kneeling stool for long periods, but the more adjustable ones have their benefits when used in conjunction with a more standard chair with back support. As an example, you could consider using a kneeling stool for approximately 15-20 minute periods to help activate the core stability muscles, before returning to a more standard chair to relax back into for spinal support.

• If you have any other conditions that affect the knees. If you experience sore knees or have been diagnosed with any joint issues, my personal advice is to avoid a kneeling stool.

In any case, as humans, we are not designed to sit still. So regardless of the type of chair you use you should remember to move as much as possible, changing your posture regularly.

If you are thinking of purchasing a kneeling stool, I would highly advise getting one on a trial period to see how it suits you - and be mindful of these sponsored posts that may pop up after you’ve been searching the internet for a new chair for working at home.

If you’re still unsure, I am here to help. Please use the contact form to get in touch.

Returning to the 'New Normal'?

The ‘new normal’; a phrase we say and hear a lot recently, thanks to the changes that Covid-19 has brought to a lot of us.

I happened to be on honeymoon when Covid-19 was pronounced as a global pandemic, enjoying the idyllic scenes of the Canadian Rockies from an RV, and slowly seeing the world close its borders over the news in an attempt to stop the spread. Sadly for us this meant that our honeymoon was cut short by a week and we arrived back home 4 days before the UK went into lockdown.

With lockdown, this meant turning all face to face assessments into virtual consultations. Although tricky for some, I had actually been involved in lots of telephone consultations in the past, when access to site was restricted for whatever reason, therefore I embraced the change quite easily. However, roll on 3, 4, 5, 6 months later… I was very much looking forward to seeing faces again and being back in the swing of it.

I happily returned to my version of the new normal earlier this month and it instantly felt like the last 6 months had never happened. It was lovely to be able to see the aspects of the workstation that I wanted and needed to see, without having to navigate through any video or audio issues. Strangely, it was also nice to get back in the car and drive to an appointment. I hadn’t realised I’d missed that me time until I had it back again.

So… what does my new normal look like. Well, I’m asking a few things of you the customer first of all:

• if you, or anyone in your household or bubble, are displaying any symptoms (a new and continuous cough, high temperature, a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste, or shortness of breath), that you please let us know as soon as possible before an onsite visit so we can rearrange the visit accordingly.

• Please ensure that there is sufficient space around the workstation for us to socially distance.

• Please open windows or doors to increase ventilation.

• If possible, please wear a face covering.

I am also doing the following;

• Rearranging the appointment if I, or anyone in my household or bubble, displays any symptoms as above.

• Wearing a face covering and face shield to help contain respiratory droplets.

• Regularly sanitising my hands throughout the appointment.

• Not touching any of your equipment or making any adjustments myself. Instead I will guide and educate you on how to make the adjustments.

• Limiting time spent in close proximity i.e. only to obtain the necessary anthropometric measurements.

Otherwise, our services remain the same; and I promise I will be smiling behind the mask!