Business Innovators Radio - Daily Desk Disciplines

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

So much of a work day can put you stagnant in front of a screen and that can be truly detrimental to your long term health. Never fear! There are a number of little things that you can do on a daily basis to keep yourself moving in a healthy direction.In this episode, Dr. Dan, Angela and Dr. Riley discuss their recommended daily desk disciplines. particularly focusing on ergonomics in the workplace. They emphasize the importance of proper posture and ergonomic setups for those who spend long hours at a desk or computer. They also touch on the significance of posture awareness, the need for regular movement and hydration throughout the workday, and ergonomic considerations for driving. The team also provides practical tips for improving workplace setups to maintain better health and productivity. This one is definitely worth a listen!To learn more about this and other hot health topics, follow us on social media and subscribe to our WTH podcast. If you have a specific health question or would like to find out if we can help you with a personal health challenge, check out our office page or contact us at 412-369-0400/ [e-mail]. As always, our mission is to help you Get Healthy and Stay Healthy for a Lifetime!What the Health?!https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/what-the-health/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/daily-desk-disciplines

Welcome to What the Health, where anything health is fair game as we tackle the trends and bust the myths about health and wellness. Here are your hosts, Dr. Dan and Angela Toro. And welcome back to another What the Health podcast. I am Dr. Dan here with my two other co-hosts. Angela. I forgot their names for a second post. We're off to a good start. You hate you.

Nice. Anyway. As you guys know, we're here for informational purposes only and no way offering individualized medical advice. Always talk to your trusted health care provider before making changes. So with that being said. Talking about daily desk disciplines. There, I said it, and I'll say it once more at the end, and we will leave it at that. Ergonomics.

If anyone has heard that term before, it's basically the position that your daily workspace is in. So if you're sitting in a desk. You know, how are you sitting or standing? You know, if you have, you know, another, you know, profession that you do, it has everything to do with. How are you, you know, using your body on a daily basis? We all have the opportunity of, you know, having professions that we get to be up and down and moving around every day. So we're not stuck in that desk space. But so many of our listeners, I would assume, are in front of a computer for eight to ten plus hours a day.

And so we want to discuss how can we help to optimize, you know, your posture, your ergonomics so that you're basically keeping your body as fit and controlled and healthy as possible in that sedentary time in front of your computer. So with that being said, I would say one of the things that we all recommend are the standing desk, yes? Absolutely. You went to that a while back, right? Oh, yeah. So do you want to explain a little bit about how you came across that and what, I mean, actually, we're sitting around your original standing desk that we're sitting around the standing desk, yes. But that's a good point that we want to talk about. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I figured that out. So I used to work in research, and I, when I was a research assistant, I was running around a lot. And then when I got to the point that I was a program manager, I was the one stuck at the desk, doing more of the behind-the-scenes stuff, less of the on-scene stuff. And I just found, I mean, going, that drastic change of going from, you know, running around every day, getting, you know, 10, 20,000 steps without even thinking about it. to now all of a sudden sitting all day. It really was just physically and mentally, I noticed, I noticed a huge difference.

So I brought up to my boss at the time and was able to get one. And then it was funny because pretty much everybody in the office, I think, got one after after me. But it said, it just, it makes a big, physically sitting, I think is just one of the worst positions to be in. I hate sitting. Like, I'm pretty much standing or laying down. Like, these are the two positions I want to be in.

So, yeah, sitting, it just, it was hard on the back, shoulders. So with the standing desk, being able to have that ability to be in a standing position and have more control over, you know, I feel like it was easier to get the screen at the right height and just different keyboards at the right height, things so that I wasn't in that kind of hunched over, seated position all the way. Yeah, so define that right height when you, when you, when you, talking about right height, like what's the difference or the problem, sitting in terms of like, you know, monitor and, you know, placement of keyboard and mouse and sitting versus

standing. I mean, even if you're sitting, you can still do things to get the screen at the right height. I mean, the big thing is you should be looking directly straight at your screen, not down. And I think the problem is a lot of desks. I mean, even, you know, how we have the setup back here, even when it's in the seated position, the screen's at the right height versus before because it's, I don't know, I'm trying to describe what I'm looking at here, but it's probably like four or five inches. Yeah, the monitor on the original desk height was way too low for me. Yeah, which even if your head, you know, if you drop your eyes, you know, and your chin down, you know, even, you know, 10, 15 degrees, that makes a massive difference in terms of the biomechanics of the neck and the musculature and the upper back and how that has to.

hold your head as your head drops forward. So I noticed that even when I'm driving, like if I, you know, my head starts to draw, you know, as soon as your head starts to come forward, and this is well documented in research, for every one inch, the center of mass, the center of your head, and we, like, when we look at an x-ray, there's a spot on there called the Salatarsica, which basically houses the pituitary gland, but we use that as the center mass of the head. So when you look at an x-ray, if that celtarsica is one inch out in front of your neck, that one inch equates to an additional 10 pounds that your, that your, the musculature in the back of your neck and upper back have to hold and engage to hold your head up. So two inches would

be an additional 20 pounds. So, you know, even taking your head from neutral to, you know, a 10 degree drop looking down at a screen, you could be taking it from a neutral position to a one or two inch of forward head carry, and that could equal an additional, you know, 10 to 20 pounds, plus the weight of the head, which is 10 to 15 pounds in your average human being. So, you could go from 10 to 15 pounds in a neutral position to 25 to 35 pounds that you're holding. And again, no problem for 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes, but doing that over 8 to 10. hours a day. And of course, we all know that as soon as you drop your head a little bit, you don't stay like that. You just continue to move forward. The eyes get tired and you're looking

closer at the screen. And so it just continues to spiral out of control from there. So, you know, one of the analogies that we use is a bowling ball, right? You know, just hold a bowling ball on your hand, even, you know, eight pound bowling ball. Use a little pink bowling ball, you know, the six pound there. Hold that bowling ball with your elbow directly under your hand. Okay. with the bowling ball next to your shoulder. You could hold that there pretty good for, you know, a while. Now, take that bowling ball out and, you know, start extending your arm so that the bowling ball is out in front of you with a straight arm. Okay, how long could you hold that six-pound bowling ball out there?

Not very long. So, again, as soon as that head starts to come forward, whether you're seated or standing, you're really adding a lot of stress. And that's where, in addition to all the biochemical stress that we get through eating, the physical stress and strain of just having that additional, you know, stress and strain on the musculature with that forward head can really cause a lot of late morning, early afternoon fatigue to where you need to grab that extra cup of coffee. And with the, like, standing desk, I think it's kind of a good thing to emphasize, like, correct posture. So if you're standing there, I know, like, you for me,

I catch myself throwing my hips forward a little bit when I'm standing, just kind of take the, you know, the weak core out of it, so to speak. So I think a great kind of checkpoint for you, if you're using a standing desk, would be, you know, ears over shoulders, shoulders over hips, hips over knees, knees over ankles, just trying to keep that perfect line from top to bottom. And that ears over shoulders would be especially good for even if you're sitting. Like, you know, if you check yourself over yourself, you're often, you know, don't move. move and be like, all right, is my ears about my shoulders? If they're not, then pull that head back. I think that's kind of a great, at least initial start for ergonomics and the desk area for work. Yeah. Well, and what I, you know, to extend on that, you know, and again, if you're seated, you know, even if you are seated, you can do, you know, ears over shoulder, shoulders over hips.

Yeah. You know, and again, you start going forward. You can correct that. And so, bringing up posture two points the one is posture awareness right a lot of people ask us about well do you know do you like any of those posture you know braces where you put on your shoulders and they hold your shoulders back and the short answer is no i don't like those because um you know if you put any muscle in a cast or a brace the muscle atrophies it gets smaller and weaker um over time so if you rely on that brace to where you're um you know to hold your shoulders back but you aren't like actively engaging, you know, the shoulders back and down position, then, you know, your musculature is just going to continue to get weak. So I much prefer if you are, if you do want to

use a posture awareness device, the ones that you can actually like clip on the back of your shirt or, you know, so as soon as you start to change the angle of your shoulders in upper back, it'll start to buzz. And it just gives you a little cue like, okay, got to sit up now. We're having your coworkers come smack. Yeah, exactly. A lot of us, you know, I've got me. Apparently, that's what we're implementing in you know. I know that if I am sitting, you know, at my desk for even 20 minutes, I'm looking at x-rays or something, and I start getting forward. It's like, it's like, but I feel it, you know, so I know it's like, oh, I've got to set up. If you are sitting now, we'll go back to the standing desk because there was another point that I wanted to make.

But if you are sitting down, I think the other thing that's important, and whether this is sitting in a desk, you know, if you're a driver, you know, so there's lots of drivers, you know, with delivery now for, you know, different companies, Amazon, FedEx, UPS, Jordan. Now, at least the advantage of those is you're hopefully getting up and getting out. Yeah, you're in and out. Shorter trips. But you're still, you know, you're still in that seated position and you're bouncing around on the road.

So one of the big things I always tell people is if you are sitting, like, you know, I always do, we talked about ab bracing in the podcast right before this, but it's like, you know, engaging your butt muscles, literally doing butt crunches, where you're squeezing your butt together and engaging your quads. A lot of people don't even know how to engage a muscle. They don't know how to engage the different muscles on their body. Without moving your body, there are ways that you can engage those muscles. And again, we talk about intellectual versus physical intelligence.

A lot of people are very low IQ when it comes to physical intelligence. So just being able to help people understand how to engage. I'm doing my butt crunch. She's doing her butt crunches. I was like, right? After right. Now together. I was doing to keep a shuffle.

Take it back now. I'm going to take it back now, y'all. I apologize. Anyway, where was I? Oh, so, so yeah, when you are sitting, because going to, back to the standing desk. I like these desks that had the option to do both, okay? Because we talk about adaptation all the time, right? Like adaptation is the simplest definition of health. No one is going to stay, you know, uniform throughout their life, you know, even something like heart rate variability

is a measurement of, you know, when your heart beats. And the more variable it is is related to better health and higher, you know, better health outcome. So the more we have the ability to adapt to different situations, the better, stronger, more resilient we are going to be and the healthier we're going to be. So when we're looking at this, you know, standing desk, I like the option to go from a sit to a stand. That way, you're engaging different muscle groups differently throughout the day. So, you know, when you are seated, you know, it's okay to give your feet a break. We'll get to the feet in a second. But like when you're sitting down, you know, engaging, you know, the butt and the quad muscles, which you can almost do, like if you would just, if you're sitting in your chair

and you would just start to engage the muscles as if you were going to stand up, but not stand up, that's how you can almost, you can engage those muscles while you're, while you're sitting there. You can do that bracing, like we talked about in the last podcast, you know, engaging those stomach muscles as if you're going to get punched in the gut, but you can hold that while you're, while you're sitting there. You can do both of those in a standing position too. So, you know, being able to...

I think engaging the chest and back muscles too. Absolutely. You talked about the, you don't want you to using a brace. Like, use your muscles. Like, people are like, well, how do I maintain that? You engage...

Yeah, you pull the muscle, yeah. Pulling the shoulder blades to the spine is the simplest way to think about it. You don't want to... Again, you don't want to go so extreme that you're putting extra strength. Yeah, you start to shake. Yeah, you just want to...

Yeah, but you want to, engage again. To get to the position. Yes. Like you should feel that like as soon as you sit upright, you're like, oh, okay, I can feel. Yeah. It is, it's really amazing. Like when I, you know, help to educate someone on what normal posture is, and they're like, oh.

Because it feels so awkward. It feels so weird. Yeah. It's like their shoulders is just like that rounded shoulder position. And it's men and women, but women, especially if they have a large chance. chest, you know, tend to, you know, first of all, bra straps are constantly pulling down on the traps. But it's like, it's just like you naturally go into this like forward, chest contracted, shoulders forward position. And it's just kind of like an easy posture to get into. But it's so

bad because you have this elongated, weakened position of your back muscles. And again, you know, you sit in that position for 20 minutes. Okay, no big deal. But, but you have this elongated, you're sit in that for eight hours a day for three years, for a year, you're going to do some major damage to your health and well-being. So the ability to change, going back to that point, you know, getting a lot of these deaths just mechanically, they, you know, they have the ability to go up and down. I really like that option to go up and down. As you talk about, when you are standing, you're engaging the leg muscles more, which again is very, very important. for lymphatic flow and venous return, the blood flow from the lower extremities all the way back up through the body.

And again, if you're sitting all day and these muscles aren't pumping, you literally get more pulling of blood down into your lower extremities. That's why you have so many people struggle with edema, pitting edema, and where your ankles and feet swell because they're sitting for hours upon hours upon years and years throughout their life. So getting up and engaging those muscles, help literally help to pump the blood throughout your body, which is good for mental clarity. It's good for cardiovascular. It's good for digestion. It's good for so many things throughout your system.

So, you know, and then again, if you're standing for, you know, an hour or two and then want to sit for, you know, 10, 15, 20, you know, half hour, it's fine, but making sure that you have that ability to go up and down. A lot of these, again, either mechanically, you can flip a lever and it can pop up, up and down really easily. A lot of them now are electronic, and you can press a button. And you can probably even set the height of the desk, too, you know, based on your height. So any other keys on that before I...

No, I think, I mean, yes, the ability to do both, I think, is probably the most beneficial. Like you said, at the feet, I think you were going to talk about proper shoe wear and stuff. So that's a good point if you want to talk about that, Dr. Allen. Just not, you know, because I don't think a lot of offices have carpet or anything, you know, that's beneficial to your feet. And so finding the good footwear, you know, that helps with the support of the foot and stuff. And I think that would be the one downfall of standing is if you don't have proper footwear. Or you get a mat to stand on. Yeah.

They have the mat specifically. I go back and forth. I don't know. Sometimes, some days I like using the mat. Some days I don't. I have it up there. But it's, yeah, it just, and again, it kind of just depends on. on.

So I keep the desk standing all the time, but it will switch out, like, if I'm on the mat or not on the mat. But, yeah, that was the one thing I didn't notice. It was, like, the shoes I had been wearing just weren't feeling great for the standing. And they're supportive, but not in the right, like, they weren't in the right, they love walking in them, but standing still, it was, I was getting a lot of heel pain and knee pain. And then so, yeah, I went with a kind of, like, lighter, I don't know, whatever. And to reiterate, or to talk more about that, because, you know, there was a big fad years ago,

and I still think it's popular, like these barefoot shoes, you know, with basically, you know, it looks like a glove for your foot, you know, and it's supposed to mimic having a bare foot. The challenge with that is your feet are designed to walk over uneven surfaces. Think, you know, dirt in the woods and leaves and ingress. grass, you know, maybe small pebbles or, you know, stepping over rocks. Like, yeah, you know, so that is much different than a, you know, flat, hardwood, stone, you know, asphalt, concrete surface if you're in a warehouse, you know, walking around. So it's like this idea of, you know, or walking barefoot at home. Like, you know, we had, you know, when we renovated our house, we had hardwood installed all over the first floor.

So we have no carpets on the first floor. If I'm doing dishes and standing at my sink in bare feet, my feet are aching because your foot is not designed to walk on a flat surface because it really just flattens out the arch. And then again, just like when you elongate a muscle, you have musculature in your feet. If you flatten that out, then they don't engage properly. If your feet are engaged properly, that impacts all the way up through your whole chain. So I think the reason we bring this up is there's a lot of people that might have a standing desk at home. But then they forget about, they'll be at home on like hardwood or, you know, maybe a carpet with not such supportive surface. A carpet is still a flat surface, even with a pad under it.

It's better than, you know, nothing. But when you're on that flat surface and you're in bare feet or just socks, like standing for long periods of time like that can really, really break down. the arch in your foot. And like you said, it can cause heel pain, planar fasciitis, ankle, knee pain, hip pain. Like, again, it's just, it's all kinetic chain. It starts, you know, from the bottom and works, it works its way up. And so that can cause low back and hip and, you know, all the way up to your neck. So, um, it's important that if you are going to use a standing desk, make sure that you have the proper footwear, um, you know, I'll be honest. I really like crocs. Um, That's been the one thing people, I haven't gotten any yet, but that seems to be like the number one recommended thing.

They're coming out with a lot of different styles too. Sure. It's like, you know, I see a lot of patients coming in wearing, you know, crocs. I'm like, these are crocs. Yeah. They're great support. Yeah. It's just, again, I wouldn't wear those, like, when you're talking about, like, if you need, you know, more ankle support or, you know, you're working outside.

It's like, obviously you're not going to wear this, but, like, just from a, you know, creating the uneven surface, like, it's really kind of walking around like on a supportive, you know, firm pillow. And it creates that unevenness, you know, when you're stepping and standing because it kind of molds to the foot like walking over uneven around. So that's why like, and again, you know, not to just harp on that, but there's lots of different. And sketchers is another one that created, you know, some of the shoe companies have this like cloud technology and stuff that you, it's literally designed so that it kind of molds to your foot as you're standing and walking.

I think that is the key when you are on a flat surface. That's what these are. I mean, they're knockoffs, but they, I've definitely noticed a huge difference from the ones that, again, I wouldn't exercise in these. Yeah, but standing throughout today. I've noticed a huge different compared to the one,

the ones I was wearing before that had a much probably more, actually weirdly enough, I probably had more arch support. But then again, but then I was getting a lot of the pain. It was pain in the heel on the knee. So, yeah, I have so many shoes. It's ridiculous. I'm like, what am I doing today? What shoes do I need to? Well, yeah, and I love to be barefoot, especially summertime. But like, again, if you're on a flat surface, you really, really feel that, you know, throughout your day. So again, love the standing

desk, but that's one of the keys that I talk to people about a lot is making sure that you have some support for the bottom of your feet when you are. standing on that flat surface. So something like a, you know, a crock or a sketcher or something that's going to give you that uneven, you know, support, that's, that is key for the standing desk. The one other thing that our massage therapist brought up to us was the mouse. You want to talk about that? Oh, yeah, I was going to, the mouse and keyboard.

So, again, there's different types of standing desk. So the one that we had back here we're recording right now is actually two different levels. so the monitor can be on a different level than the keyboard and the mouse, which is my preference, because being tall, I need the screen higher. But if your keyboard and mouse are on the same level as your screen, then you're really, you have your shoulders and elevated position. Yeah, an elevated position. And especially if your mouse is too far out and elevated,

now you're essentially just doing like an arm extension all day long, which is going to lead to a lot of probably shoulder chest. Yeah, your shoulders roll forward. And then again, then you can get the weakness in the scapula, the shoulder blade. Yeah, absolutely. It's just a lot. Yeah, so that's been the big thing. Yeah, just really want to make sure.

Again, we talked about the screen height, but you also want to make sure your keyboard and mouse are at the right height as well so that you're not messing up your wrist, your shoulders. how do you feel about that? I know they were big for a while and I don't know if they still are. The pads. Yeah, the pads. You know, I would have to defer to someone, well, probably personal preference.

I think that if you are someone who is sitting there typing a lot of documents, you know, if you are, you know, an admin and you're just doing a ton of typing with emails, you know, I could see how that pad, and I don't know if you know, we'll maybe put a link or something, but like it's the pad that goes right in front of the keyboard that ideally you would place your palms and the base of your wrist on, which would ideally keep your hands in a more neutral position rather than if the keyboard is up higher than your wrists and your wrists are on the the desk, then your wrists have to be in an extended position for long periods of time, which could lead to things like carpal tunnel, you know, wrist pain, elbow pain.

So I certainly see the concept of that. And again, I think it's probably more, you know, ergonomic based on the size of your hand in relationship to the keyboard and how often are you actually typing again? For, you know, most of us who are sending an email here and there, you know, no problem. but someone who is literally their whole day is, you know, responding to emails. Yes. Do not look at our keyboard setup up front. It is not.

It is, but not doing it. Yeah, but most of them. I'm not writing documents up there. Yeah. Exactly. So, but so then, you know, but so then taking that, you know, a step further to the phone, too. Oh, yeah. That's a, you know, that's a huge, if you're on the phone for more than, I don't even like

picking up my cell phone. and like bringing it to my ear, you know, because again, I even just doing that, like, I tilt my head a little bit. I'm showing, I'm showing everyone in the audience who's listening, but like I tilt my head. You know, so if I'm on my phone, I like to be on speaker phone. You know, again, if you have the ability to be in a private office, get a headset. If you're on the phone for more than an hour a day, get a headset, you know, and use that because, you know, holding the phone, even if you're, the worst thing you can do is hold the phone, between your ear and your shoulder.

That's just terrible. But again, you know, people who are trying to type while they're talking on the phone, they need their free hand. So again, get a headset. You know, if you're going to be on the phone more than a, you know, more than an hour a day. So, yeah, that's that phone position in the mouse, position of the keyboard, also very important, whether you're sitting or standing. And again, you know, really it's the, you know,

you should be able to mimic the position between sitting and standing. The only difference is you're just going to engage the legs more when you do stand up from that desk. So, you know, and then, you know, we could get into driving, too. I mean, that's a whole other, like, you know, and we've talked about that before, but like your driving position, I like the, you know, if you're going on a long car road trip, I mean, we're heading into the holidays now before we're going to be doing some traveling. So maybe you're heading on a car ride. It's going to be longer than three hours.

like, hey, you know, that sitting position is important. So I like to make sure that my arms, you know, my elbows are down by my side and, you know, I have the steering wheel closer to me and I actually am able to sit up against my seat back. I mean, I see so many people that it's like their steering wheel is way out in front of them. And so they have to reach for their steering wheel. And again, that can make the arms go very, very heavy. if you're too far back from your pedals and you really have to reach with your leg, that can really cause some weakness and tightness in the hip, especially the outside of the hip. That can cause,

you know, sciatic issues. So it's like, get yourself into a comfortable position, you know, when you're driving. And sometimes you need to change that position. So it's like, you know, if you can do it safely with an electronic thing and, you know, hey, I mean, there are times when I'm driving and I hit like, you know, an hour or two, and I'm like, I need, you know, maybe you need to lift it up a little bit, go down a little bit, forward, backward, but like just changing the position that you're driving, you know, can really make a difference with how your muscles are engaging, especially your driving leg, you know, that's going back and forth.

I like, on long trips, I put the steering wheel as low as I can because I like, I just basically, yeah, hold it down. But then if I hit a part where I had it on cruise control, it might, because I'm long legs, then my legs are hitting the steering wheel. So I'm like, then I have to go back. Yeah, it's, I hate, I hate it. So, again, just, of course, do everything safely, but, you know, understand that you can change those positions

and may be beneficial for yourself to change those positions if you're doing a lot of the driving. And if you have back and hip issues, stop. Stop, stretch, yes. Give yourself enough time that you can stop every. I mean, I stop probably every two hours when I drive, which is why Dan and I cannot travel together. I'm the kind of person.

I'm going to go. This is as far as I can't. You have to pee. Hold it. Not yet. I can make it 30 more miles. Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Riley and I were just talking about that. And for me, it's partially the having to pee, but it's also, it's a having to move. Like, I just,

you know, as somebody who does not sit for long periods ever, it is, yeah, it kills me. And so, yeah, I'll stop and I'll,

you know, just stretch out a little bit, move around a little bit. Like, it's, yeah. It's very beneficial. Yes, and I think that's why I like, if I'm going somewhere, I like driving,

because then I'm in control of the time and my stops, and I'm like, I'll get there when I get there. I don't care. I'm very much, I like to get there. The tank sauce gas for driving. Yeah, we're going. I'm never road tripping with either. My lovely wife will look and is like, did that light just come on? Or has that been on for 20 miles?

I've been in the car with you where we literally, got to the gas station as it hit zero and I'm like I cannot. That's perfect timing. Even going back to the desk jobs and stuff like that, you mentioned getting up and moving with driving. That's the same thing. I think what you're supposed to have like 10 minutes of every hour. Every hour, yeah.

Yeah, so, you know, we're preaching on how to sit and stand correctly in a new job, but also literally just walked a bathroom back. I think that's why, like, standing more than moving, because, or sorry, standing more than sitting. Because sitting, it's easy for hours to go by and not, but you, if you're standing, you're only going to be able to stand still for so long. And then you're going to find yourself kind of, okay, I need to shift my weight. I mean, you guys see me. If we don't have anybody up there, I'm like, I'm stretching. Trusts me out.

He's, like, moving everywhere. Yes. She walks. I'm going to stress you out. When you started, when you did. to like moving up, I feel like I should be following. I do, I do pace a lot. If we get a lull.

Mama duckling. Yeah. Our office is not very big, so I just, like, I just do, I just pace up and down. She paces. I face. I can't sit still. She's like a modeler. But, but, but yes, that, like, that I think is withstanding, like your body is naturally not

going to let you stand for long periods without. moving whereas sitting you just without even realizing it you're just going to kind of start slouching and and finding other ways to to alleviate that those kind of aches and pains as opposed to moving that so the one final tip since we're talking about daily desk disciplines the one thing especially as we're heading into the colder months is make sure you have water next to your desk stay hydrated like it's not really an ergonomic thing but you know the ergonomics have a lot to do with how your muscles are engaging. And if you're not hydrated,

your muscles are going to be sore. Like they get, you know, think of like crispy bacon versus flimsy bacon. I like those. But I like flimsy personally. But, but yeah,

like if your muscles are dehydrated, you know, if your skin's dehydrated, like things just stiffen up when they're dehydrated. So, you know, making sure that you have plenty of

water throughout your day is going to help your musculature engage. You know, so, you know, just a friendly, you know, public service reminder. Drink your water. And even, like, you know, the chiropractic standpoint of the discs being healthy and stuff like that, it's called imbibition. That's how the water gets into the disc. So, you know, the more water you drink, the more, you know, lubricated the joints. Yeah. Muscles seem to be more relaxed.

and then the discs between, you know, each bone and the spine tend to get a little bit bigger as well, more cushions. So if you do have that, you know, nervous system interference at one of those segments, hopefully by increasing the disc height, you can get a little bit of freedom in those nerves and maybe, you know, you think better too. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So, well, I think we made it through the Daily Desk disciplines and, you know, some of the tips that might not necessarily be obvious, but hopefully helpful, especially the feet.

That was a big one that I wanted to discuss. Awesome. Well, we will see you at the next What the Health podcast. If any of this resonated with you, you can check us out on ToroTU-R-O-Family Chiropractic.com. And we'll see everyone at the next one. Thanks for listening. You've been listening to What the Health with Dr. Dan and Angela Toro. Brought to you by Toro Family Chiropractic.

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