"You can do something about your bad attitude very quickly," promises Erik Peper of San Francisco State University. Together with other researchers, he has investigated how office people best protect their neck and back. Your unusual suggestion: sitting extra-crooked in front of the screen for about 30 seconds, they write in the journal Biofeedback.
If you're deliberately crooked, feel what a bad posture means for your body, the researchers argue. This is much more effective than constant admonitions like 'Sit straight!'
Common problem: stretch your head forward
"When your position is up and up, your back muscles can easily carry the weight of your head and neck," says Peper. It was about 5.4 kilograms. In contrast, when the head is tilted 45 degrees forward, the neck becomes a kind of long lever and the load multiplies. It is not surprising that people in this attitude get stiff neck and shoulder and back pain.
The researchers tested the effects of poor posture in several experiments. During an examination, 87 students should first sit upright and turn their heads to either side. Then they should tilt their heads forward and do the same. First result: 92 percent could not turn their tilted head as well as before in the upright position.
In another attempt, 125 students were to remain in this bent position for 30 seconds. Afterwards, almost all reported pain in the head, neck or around the eyes.
In another test, subjects should first sit straight and then slightly extend their chin for 30 seconds, causing the neck to wrinkle. 98 percent reported symptoms such as a stiff neck or headache and were amazed that they felt something so fast.
The exercises in the study made the participants aware of the symptoms that can result from poor posture, the researchers write. "Feeling and seeing - self-awareness - is far more effective than telling participants to correct their attitude." Most subjects were surprised by the influence of the bad attitude on their well-being.
According to the researchers, the following tips can help to find the optimal position:
- Keep your head upright in line with your neck.
- Temporarily deliberately take a crooked stance to consciously perceive the negative consequences.
- If you stretch your head towards the screen, think about glasses or make the font larger.
- Set screens in the morning and do not change the position. This prevents a sinking during the day.
- It's better not to do longer work with a laptop, but to use an additional screen that should be at eye level.
"This is a reasonable study," says the Secretary General of the German Society for Orthopedics and Traumatology (DGOU), Bernd Kladny, who was not involved in the study. It shows health effects that are already known from the "mobile phone neck" ago. To be aware of such effects is already the first step. "The question is," says Kladny, "how long such an effect will last."