 In this day and age, the average person is spending less time outdoors and more time indoors with their eyes glued to a glowing screen. We are undoubtedly becoming more sedentary than ever. Spending all day in front of a computer is bad enough. but once you throw in some long commute times and hours spent lounging on the couch, you’ve got a recipe for disaster. The risk of repetitive strain injury will continue to skyrocket unless you know the right ways to prevent this common condition. One way to prevent RSI is to make sure you are sitting with proper body alignment. This will minimize the stress placed on your body due to poor posture. This sounds like an easy solution but it’s more difficult than you might think since proper posture requires muscle recruitment (Meaning your muscles must contract and perform some work to maintain that good posture) and recruitment requires constant effort. Often times, we end up tiring out since the muscles holding that upright posture are weak, eventually causing us to slouch. So what kinds of havoc can slouching bring about to your body? Instead of using your muscles to hold yourself in a proper position, you rely on your ligaments the further you hunch over, resulting in one or more of the following problems: 
As a solution to these issues caused by slouching, standing or adjustable desks have become more and more popular. But even standing for prolonged periods of time can become an issue. If you don’t adjust the desk to suit your needs, then this could possibly add unnecessary stress to your body. Always make sure your standing desk is at the correct height!  Quick Tip: You can place a small box under one of your feet when you are standing to help your lumbar spine. (If you’re questioning where you’ve seen this applied, have you ever noticed that railing you’ve rested your feet on while waiting for a bartender to serve you? Bar owners realized that their patrons would be more comfortable, stay longer, and order more drinks by simply resting their feet on that rail.) So if you’ve ever wondered what to do with that Yellow Pages book you have laying around, you can always use that as a foot rest. Otherwise, you can use anything that rests a few inches off the ground.
With all this being said, we’ve come to understand that prolonged sitting and standing is bad for you. So what are we to do if we’re not supposed to engage in either of those things? The answer is to apply ergonomic principles while moving on a regular basis. Just remember: Your best position is the next position!!!
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