What is an “ergonomic position” anyhow? As Merriam Webster puts it, ergonomics is “an applied science concerned with designing and arranging things people use so that the people and things interact most efficiently and safely”.
To put it in plain English we’re looking at workplace set-ups which enable you to do your job on a computer in a most efficient manner without having negative effects on your health. Most of the workplace solutions currently available on the market involve either sitting, standing or some sort of balancing while working. Let’s take a look how they fit into the definition of ergonomics.
SITTING: you are probably familiar with the countless variety of so called ergonomic office chairs, all of them promising the ultimate sitting comfort and ease of work. Some of them do in fact have dedicated lumbar support which works fine for your lower back if you manage stay alert and pay attention to your posture while working. The challenge here is to stay mindful about your posture throughout the entire working day – nobody is capable of doing that! Those chairs will not prevent you from slouching, sliding down under the table or hunching down to your keyboard or monitor screen. So unless you keep concentrating on keeping the correct posture at all times, you are guaranteed to end up with sore back or techneck or both. If you are concentrating on your posture you cannot concentrate on your work – multitasking doesn’t work here! So is sitting in a chair safe? Not in the long-run! Is it efficient? Not really.
STANDING: Standing desks or stand-up tables have recently got media attention and are claimed to be the solution to the sedentary lifestyle problem. The logic of solving problems with long-term sitting by substituting it with long-term standing is questionable at the least. Go and ask your doctor about what happens to your veins after a day / week / month of still standing – you will not be amazed. Besides – you can still hunch down and slouch while standing – the gravity is still there and will pull you or parts of you down as soon as you loosen attention on keeping the correct posture. Constant switching between low position for sitting and high position for standing is questionable from the efficiency point of view. I don’t mind standing tables for a coffee break to have a conversation with your colleagues but they are definitely a poor choice for long-term and efficient work.
BALANCING: therapy balls, also known as balance balls can sometimes be seen in the modern offices…mostly stuck in some corner rather than being in actual use. They are fun and healthy to sit on as they are engaging your inner muscles and activating the core. Yet do you really want to be in a work-out mode throughout the entire working day? I bet you’d prefer to be concentrating on your work rather than the object you sit on. And, yet again, the ball will not prevent you from hunching down at some point.
THE LEVUS WAY: we see that none of the “classical work set-ups” are efficient or safe enough in the long run. They all ignore the elementary force of gravity which pulls you down into an unhealthy position as soon as you loosen your posture attention. With LEVUS we made gravity work for you – not against you. By being in a reclined half-sitting half-lying position the gravity is actually pulling you into naturally keeping a healthy position: your shoulders are set back, the natural S-curve for your spine and your lower back are in a correct position without the need of constantly paying attention to it while your head is pushed down into a head-rest. When working in LEVUS you would actually have to physically strain yourself and deliberately lift your upper body form the surface in order to get into an unhealthy position – the gravity just won’t let you do it. Isn’t it great? It sure is!!! Is LEVUS healthy to stay in during the entire working day? Sadly not. No matter how comfortable your current position is, you should change it regularly and keep your limbs moving to stimulate bloodflow. We are criticising the commonly adopted desk-chair combination for long-term computer work because of the discomfort and problems it comes with. With our LEVUS zero gravity workstation all of those posture issues are solved - yet the natural need for physical movement is still there and you should not neglect it, no matter what work set-up you choose. With the LEVUS workstation it is equally important to stay conscious about and enforce those regular stretch-up breaks. LEVUS is just so comfortable that you can stay there indefinitely. It's a good idea to divide your workday into work-blocks with short exercises in between - you will find plenty of evidence proving that such breaks are boosting your productivity. Set an alarm clock if you need - experiment with the length of your work blocks to achieve high concentration and deep focus.
Since LEVUS is a bunch of metal bars, it can naturally be used for bar workouts. You can do pull-ups without even having to get out of the workstation. The cross-bar by your feet is ideal for triceps dips or angled push-ups. Make it one-handed if you're advanced. No matter what you do physically, just don't forget to do it regularly to stay in good shape. Consider LEVUS to be your zero-gravity workplace at the International Space Station where daily exercise is fact mandatory.
So coming back to the initial question of “what is the best ergonomic position?”, the only correct answer can be “…the next one!”