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A Conversation With … Chris Baker on Office Ergonomics

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How can people focus on wellness while sitting at a computer all day?
It’s a challenge. As soon as we put kids in a chair in school, it’s downhill from there because of what sitting does to our bodies.

What are the effects?
With sitting, everything starts to shorten up. The hamstring muscles in the back legs shorten, the muscles in the hips shorten and that pulls on your lower back. Your gluteal muscles don’t have to function, so they spread out. In people that work at computers, they start to hunch and the shoulders rotate inward. Your head weighs more because it starts to come outside your center of gravity. That’s not even the potential heart risks, that’s just the physical structure.

What can people who work at computers do to change that?
I encourage people here to stand up more. Stand as much as they can. Some people have standing desks. I encourage them to get up once an hour and move. I know that’s tough because everybody here works so hard. They have deadlines, so a lot of times they are stuck. We’ve organized walking clubs. I also encourage stretching at your desk.

Standing two hours every day will reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease by 10 percent. If you exercise in the morning, then go and sit for eight hours, you are undoing a lot of that. Trying to get people to do bits throughout the day in 5- or 10-minute bouts is key.

Do ergonomic chairs make a difference?
Yes, I think so. Anything that will help decrease the damage to your body is a good thing. The kneeling chairs I’ve seen are best. Those fitness balls are a bit of a myth. For a while, they force you to sit up, but you can still slouch on them. The ability to stand periodically is still the best option.

Monitors are another issue. They should be eye level. You shouldn’t have to lower your neck to look at it. For a few minutes, you can do anything. But its cumulative.

What’s your role as a wellness coach at O’Reilly Automotive?
O’Reilly has been trying to implement a wellness program for a long time. It’s challenging; they are very busy here and the company is growing fast. I meet one-on-one with people, but one of the other roles I’m assisting with is the comprehensive wellness program for the entire company. I work with our account team to help strategize what they want to do for future incentives and how they want to attack. It’s a challenge because of the size of the company and the diversity of people. Here you have a sedentary environment, as opposed to a distribution center or retail store. I’m doing a lot of seed planting and trying to change the culture.

What do you talk with employees about?
We are focused on setting smart goals. They are reasonable and attainable. We have a responsibility to take care of ourselves. That is a loss of control. Part of what I want to help people do is get that control back. If that is a matter of a simple goal like having a glass of water with breakfast every day, that gives them control and we build off it.

So the goal is personal responsibility?
People always say, “just put the fork down” or “exercise more.” People get looked at as being lazy. I would contend the majority of the population did not wake up in the morning and say, “Oh, I think I want to have heart disease.” The personal responsibility comes when you have education. Once you know, then you have a choice. If you don’t have that information to start, how can you make the choice?

Chris Baker is a Cigna Health and Life Insurance Co. on-site health coach at O’Reilly Automotive Inc. He can be reached at cbaker43@oreillyauto.com.

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