StyleMyCube

Another common complaint among cube dwellers is the feeling that they’re getting “cube body.” What kind of effect does long-term sitting have on you? Mary Ann Pavlides, a registered nurse and massage therapist, says her clients have experienced:

• Lower-back strain due to poor posture and sitting too long.
• Upper-back strain from scrunching neck and shoulder together while talking on the phone.
• Shortened pectoral muscles from leaning into a desk to type on a computer.
• Sluggish circulation in their legs from prolonged inactivity.

Fortunately, combating these problems is easy. Pavlides recommends the following exercises for relief:

• Get up and walk every half hour. This keeps your circulation going, gives your eyes a break from your monitor and lets your whole body move.
• Stretch your arms back over your head and arch your body into a “C.” This helps reverse the hunched-over posture you may sit in.
• Stand up and roll back and forth on your heels and toes. This stretches leg muscles that cramp from too much sitting.
• Find a doorway and place your forearms against the frame. Lean into the doorway to stretch your pec muscles. Don’t hold this position too long, though, or you might strain yourself.

Make sure you have an ergonomic chair with armrests you can raise and lower to get the right fit. Adjust your desk or table to a comfortable level.

Even if your cube mates are a bunch of idiots and your boss rides you like a pony , cube nirvana is still possible. I found the following quote from Angela Holton, a communications administrator and resident of Cubeland for 11 years, who says existing happily in a cube requires a “bloom where you’re planted” philosophy.

“I keep lots of framed photographs on my desk of friends and favorite places I’ve visited,” she says. “I also am referred to as the ‘Plant Lady’ because of all the greenery at my desk. I’m even considering a small Persian-type rug to place at the entrance of my cube to cozy things up a bit. The way I see it is, if you have to live in a cube, you might as well make it comfortable.”

That’s the kind of spirit we love at SMC, way to go Angela!

As fellow Cube enthusiasts, we’re writing to promote Lifehacker’s Coolest Cubicle Contest, where users can send in pictures of their cubes to be voted on by the public. For the number of people working in a cube these days, this contest is WAY overdue and should should become annual. So here are the details from Lifehacker

We’re looking for the coolest cubicle on the block, and over the next few weeks we’ll feature our favorite submissions every Thursday on Lifehacker. Once the submissions are exhausted, your fellow readers will vote for the cubicle they think is the coolest, and the winner will take home a $500 Amazon Gift Card

While we’re a little bummed we didn’t launch the contest ourselves, we’re in full support of promoting stylish cublicles and commend them for initiating this contest. So bring your camera to work, snap a pic of your cube and submit it. Heck, while you’re at it, send it to us at info@stylemycube.com as well

Also for all you lucky remoties out there, check out their Coolest Workspace Contest results here.

Let’s face it… every now and again work can get a little monotonous or tedious or annoying or downright painfully boring! Here are some online games that will hopefully help you through some rough patches:

Spin the Black Circle reminds me of those wooden marble labyrinth mazes, except this game has fiery torches, spikes, and spinning walls. Lots of fun!

Sprout, a hand-drawn game by Jeff Nusz, features a magical seed that travels the world by morphing between an apple tree, coconut, and dandelion. Very unique!

The Impossible Quiz is the second (and probably not final) impossible quiz that will delight riddle and puzzler lovers. Guaranteed to prompt a few groans and ooooh’s!

Warbears showcases Polar Bears trying to solve missions around Bedtime City including rescuing gas platforms from attack and stopping bank robberies.

Tower Bloxx challenges you to build tall skyscrapers for your new city and to attract more residents by building straighter, taller skyscrapers.

Peggle is probably one of my all-time favorite online games just for its sheer silliness. If you like pinball, you’ll love Peggle. Go Zen Ball!

Last week Crunch stopped by my work in hopes of signing up new members - smart move on their part as people are still reeling in New Year’s guilt. Part of their visit was a mini-yoga class as well as a chair yoga demonstration. Although I planned on attending, unfortunately I got caught up into something urgent (these words come out of my mouth way too often). Regardless, I was really intrigued by the idea of doing yoga while stuck in the cube, so I started looking online about this intriguing form of exercise.

Chair yoga (a.k.a. sitting yoga or office yoga) as it implies, is a gentle form of yoga that is practiced sitting in a chair, or standing using a chair for support. This form of yoga is really low-impact and is tremendously popular within seniors and those with disabilities. Just think if you try this out, maybe you’ll have something to rap to grandma about next Thanksgiving!

For those that have seen the mat before, standing postures, such as Triangle and Warrior variations, and flowing postures such as Salutations or Vinyasa, all can be practiced while sitting in a chair.

I researched this topic online for awhile and here are some of the best resources I found for anyone interested in getting a quick stretch without leaving the office

• Several youtube videos with demonstrations

• A nicely categorized link to a bunch of short .gifs displaying each stretch.

• Nice instructions for some of the real basics chair exercises.

While chair yoga is a great concept, it must be practiced cautiously. Cubes by definition don’t have much privacy, so try to practice when you know you wont get caught, or you’ll end up like this guy -

It’s officially time to think about your New Year’s Resolution for 2008!  You may want to consider making a resolution to eat healthier at the office.  The office place is filled with diet breaking temptations such as vending machines, snack drawers, and department lunches.  Here are a few simple tips to eating healthier at work:

*Bring fresh fruit & vegetables to the office, such as apples, bananas, oranges (clementines are especially work friendly because they are easy to peel!), cherry tomatoes, broccoli florets, and baby carrots, to snack on instead of reaching for a candy bar

*Drink water at your desk, rather than a sugary soft drink

*Coordinate a snack committee to lobby for healthful food for department meetings 

*If you go out for a work lunch ask the waiter to box 1/2 of your lunch for you to eat later for dinner or for lunch the next day 

Financial Times columnist, Lucy Kellaway, offers solutions to the trials and tribulations of the workplace.  Everything from workplace dating, to smelly coworkers, to email etiquette provides fodder for discussion, with Financial Times readers weighing in with their perspectives.  The Financial Times is located in the United Kingdom, so a lot of crises are addressed with a healthy dose of British wit.

For the environmentally conscious, going green can extend into your office.  If your company doesn’t already have a recycling program, look into starting one.  Try to reduce usage by bringing in a washable coffee mug or photocopying on both sides of the page.  Try carpooling to work (Note: a friend of ours has started a carpooling website called rideamigos.com).  Small steps like this can make a big environmental difference… plus it’s an easy way to show leadership and innovation around the office.  Also, there is a company called The Green Office which specializes in green office products.  Each of their products is rated according to a “Green Screen” Key, which denotes the products as recycled content, biodegradable or compostable, or reduced chemical content. 

Setting up your desk so that it is ergonomically correct will help resolve life’s complex questions such as: is my pounding headache caused from happy hour last night or from the annoying angle of my neck as I stare at this mindless spreadsheet on my computer? All kidding aside, desktop ergonomics has become a huge industry over the last few years with large companies hiring private consultants to evaluate worksite setups and has generated such buzzwords as “neutral body positioning” a.k.a. “a comfortable working posture in which your joints are naturally aligned.” Making a few adjustments to how your cube is setup can improve the quality of your life on a daily basis. As such, we turn to the real ergonomic experts “OSHA” (or the long-winded version: US Department of Labor - Occupational Safety & Health Administration) for the following tips on how to produce an ergonomically correct workstation:

* Your head should be in-line with the torso and approximately 20-4o inches from your monitor. The top of the monitor should be at or slightly below (15-20 degrees) eye level.

* Your shoulders should be relaxed with your upper arms hanging comfortably at the side of your body. Your elbows should be close to your body and bent between 90 and 120 degrees. Your hands, wrists, and forearms should all be straight, in-line and roughly parallel to the floor. Consider a wrist pad if your wrists tend to bend while you type.

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Switching jobs, one inevitably finds a new cube which has been hapazardly deserted by its previous occupant– complete with stray pen marks on the desk, dust in the corners, and crumbs in the drawers. In addition, there are the horror stories about desk tops having more bacteria than your average public toilet seat at almost 21,000 germs per square inch! In order to transform your cube to create a somewhat sanitary environment look to the following products:

Mrs. Meyers Countertop Spray - an all natural product made of essential biodegradable substances that won’t leave your entire office gagging on the toxic fumes emanating from your cube. Also, a similar product that is available at your local Target store is called Cleannote.

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser - A sponge-like cleaning product that will dissolve any hard to clean stray marks with minimal rubbing. Unfortunately you won’t be getting Mr. Clean’s muscley arms anytime soon with this wimp-friendly product.

Swiffer Sheets - A great dust gather and crumb picker-upper, that you should use at least once a week, plus once you’re finished they’re fun to look at to see how dirty your desk was… it actually makes you feel like you accomplished something for the day!

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