A couple office wellness tips

At Hawaiian Electric, our wellness program for employees provides a multitude of options to promote physical, mental, social, and financial resources to support and improve our well-being. As a wellness ambassador for my process area, I have been happy to promote my active lifestyle outside of work that includes lots of biking, walking, golfing, and a little bit of tennis and pickleball.

However, I am starting to feel that as I get older, some of my bad ergonomic habits are catching up with me and limiting my ability to do the things that I love to do. Since August is National Wellness Month, I thought it might be helpful to share some of my recent experiences with trying to stay physically healthy while working in an office environment.

Take care of your feet

I have a shoe addiction. I like sneakers as well as fancy work shoe brands like Cole Haan and Vince Camuto, and have way too many shoes in my closet. Some of the work shoes feel comfortable, especially Cole Haan, but may not provide the best support for your feet. I also used to wear inexpensive rubber slippers — you know, either the Locals or Surfahs.

I began to have pain in the base of my toes on my right foot, which affected my ability to push off when walking and swinging a golf club. I finally went to a podiatrist who diagnosed the issue as capsulitis of the second toe joint. The treatment prescribed was to stabilize the toe with kinesio tape to keep it from being able to bend upwards, and to get better footwear with more arch support to take pressure off the toe joint — a perfect excuse for more shoe shopping.

I tried Hoka, Oofoh, On Cloud, Brooks, and all kinds of orthotic insole combinations. The best solution for my feet is Brooks Launch 9 with PowerStep Pinnacle insoles. The Brooks shoes do not have all the fancy cushioning that Hoka and On Cloud have, but they do provide the better sole stiffness which keeps the toes from bending upwards when pushing off. If you see me walking around downtown with my “Bowl of Cereal” Brooks on, they are actually serving a functional purpose in addition to looking goofy and awesome.

Sit up straight

As soon as I started to get this toe thing under control, I began to have sharp pain in my neck and shoulder area that is accompanied by left arm weakness and tingling/numbness. Another trip to the doctor and some precautionary blood tests diagnosed this as a pinched nerve in my neck (cervical radiculopathy). Doctor’s orders are to limit activity (I am not good at this) and to do physical therapy.

The physical therapist said my posture is terrible. I am always slouching, and she called me out on it immediately. The pinched nerve is a result of the gap in the upper spine/neck area closing up on the opening where the nerves run out from the spinal column to the rest of the body. Slouching and tight neck and back muscles contribute to this. These exercises were suggested to help:

1. Sit up straight more often. Sounds simple, but it doesn’t feel natural for me. The physical therapist described it as rolling your pelvis forward when sitting, which forces you into an upright position.
2. Back and shoulder stretches. Squeeze your shoulder blades together like you are trying to put them in your back pockets. Hold for a few seconds and release, then repeat a handful of times. Also doing slow reverse shoulder rolls, which force your posture to open up naturally.
3. Use a foam roller. Lie on a foam roller with it positioned vertically under your spine and just relax and let your back and shoulder muscles stretch with gravity to either side.

I also have an upcoming ergonomics training class provided by our Safety team at Hawaiian Electric that should help me to improve my bad office habits. It seems as I get older my body is telling me that I need to start taking better care of myself. Luckily, these are relatively simple things that can be treated and managed with some basic maintenance.

I hope these tips that I’ve shared are useful to you as much as they are for me!