The most obvious forms of physical stress are the slips, falls, sport injuries, accidents and major traumatic injuries. These are easy to identify. There are, however, a number of not so obvious physical stressors that are habitual in nature. For example, improper posture, poor sleep position or situation (mattress issues), and repetitive motions.
The most common posture issue in today’s society is the computer posture. No matter how “ergonomically correct” your workstation is, it is impossible to avoid this repetitive stressor. As you reach your arms toward the keyboard or mouse, the shoulders automatically begin to round into a slumped position and the head pushes forward. Many things, in addition to working at a computer, can contribute to this position. For example: a parent holding a small child, a teacher assisting a young student by leaning over the students desk, a mechanic leaning in to work on the engine of your car, reading a book, scrap booking, sewing, arts & crafts, knitting, doing a cross word puzzle or any other project or hobby that has you in a seated posture with your hands working in front of you. Driving a car or sitting on an airplane also puts us into this stressful computer posture.
As you can see, this form of physical stress is chronic in our world these days. In later postings, we will discuss preventing problems that can arise from the computer posture and I will also show you how to correct any imbalances that can occur due to this position.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
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2 comments:
I think another common form of physical stress is environmental -- and not just the chemicals, which you identify as a separate stress -- but things like pollen, noise, wind, etc.
I know this wasn't the point of your post, which was actually about computer posture, but I wanted to mention those while I remember them.
Good job - Those are all common stressors as well. I would still consider pollen a chemical stress (of course it effects the physical).
Noise & wind, deepending on the form, can be attachced to mental stress - since, it is our mental/emotional reaction to them that determines if it is a stress or not.
As you can see, these are all interconnected. The main point that I want everyone to see is that stress is all around us. We'll get into specifics as to how we respond to stress in the near future.
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