Prism glasses, posture and desk jobs

Sitting for long hours can wreak havoc on your posture over the years. Wouldn’t it be great if we could get work done lying down instead of sitting? You can if you use prism glasses.

What are prism glasses?

These nifty contraptions change the line of sight without distortion and can be worn over prescription glasses allowing you to lay down, set your laptop, research book, etc. on your tummy and read. Genius. Responding to e-mail, posting to Facebook, texting, or watching a movie is also possible.

Why is lying on your back important for posture?

Posture benefits of lying on your back can be significant. Thethoracic spine, the largest curve (middle portion) of the spine, is in an extended position when we lay down. Since our spine is a closed chain kinetic system, one area affects the other. One degree of extension (lengthening) of the thoracic spinecan influence up to 13 degrees of change in the cervical(neck) spine or three degrees in the lumbar spine. When we lose the natural curve of any portion of our spine, we lose proper loading of our joints. Years of misalignment can lead to many postural abnormalities such as having a hunched, rounded, forward leading head. This quickly leads to pain and muscular imbalance. Between tension headaches and low back pain, the usefulness of proactive pain reduction alone justifies lying down for a portion of your day especially if you don’t have to fall behind with your workload.

For those that have the opportunity to experiment while in a supine (lying down) position, the Egoscue Method offers simple suggestions that will induce spinal changes more rapidly. One of the best is the supine groin progressive position. Rolling on a towel or foam roller is another useful technique.

Prism glasses improve compliance for exercises for postural therapy by leaps and bounds. Posture therapy expert and colleague Dustin Dillberg finds that his clients have much better and more rapid postural improvement if they can spend an hour or two on the floor each week in the supine groin progressive position. Time flies by when reading, checking e-mail or making calls on speakerphone. Could these glasses revolutionize office workstations? Perhaps in the not-so-distant future, we will walk into an office and everyone will be lying down with their legs up, laptops on their stomachs, working away.

When you are sitting, having the right chair and posture as well as some proper stretch breaks can make a huge impact on maintaining a pain-free body.
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