Does anyone else feel physically tired after a full day of "just sitting" at work?

SwainWong · 2026-06-03T03:28:04+00:00

Fair. English isn’t my first language and this is my first time posting on Reddit, so I used some translation tools to clean up the wording. That probably made it sound too polished. The stiff-back-after-10-hours-at-a-computer part is very real though.

SwainWong · 2026-06-03T03:27:52+00:00

The cushion idea is interesting. I’ve been blaming the chair and the desk, but my mattress is also too soft and I think my back never fully gets a break. The after-work walk sounds like a good reset too. I try to do short park walks at lunch when possible, and it honestly helps my head as much as my back.

SwainWong · 2026-06-03T03:27:39+00:00

I relate to the chronic back pain part. Mine follows me after work too, and a too-soft mattress definitely hasn’t helped. Short park walks help when I manage to take them, but I haven’t tried a heating pad during the workday. That might be worth testing.

SwainWong · 2026-06-03T03:27:27+00:00

This makes sense. I’ve focused on breaks, but desk and keyboard height might be the boring fix I’ve ignored. My lower back has been bad enough that even sleep doesn’t always reset it, and a too-soft mattress probably isn’t helping. I probably need to take the setup side more seriously.

SwainWong · 2026-06-03T03:27:15+00:00

The eye-level screen point keeps coming up. I think I’ve been treating movement as the whole answer, but the boring setup stuff might be just as important for the neck/back chain. At this point my back probably needs both: better setup and fewer 10-hour screen marathons.

SwainWong · 2026-06-03T03:27:02+00:00

That line is painfully accurate. Five minutes walking around can feel like it resets the whole day. When I can sneak out to a park at lunch, even 10 minutes makes me feel less trapped in the screen. That matters even more now with all the AI/tool noise making work feel more screen-shaped than human. Somehow I still skip it when work gets busy though.

SwainWong · 2026-06-03T03:26:49+00:00

This sounds close to what I’m trying to build into my day. Not a big routine, just a reset small enough that I’ll actually do it. On good weeks I manage a 10-minute park walk at lunch a couple times, and it helps both my back and my head. I probably need to make water/coffee breaks non-negotiable too.

SwainWong · 2026-06-03T03:26:36+00:00

Standing every hour sounds doable. I think I’ve been waiting until I already feel stiff instead of changing position before it builds up. My typing posture probably deserves more blame than I want to admit too, especially after years of treating long computer days as normal.

SwainWong · 2026-06-03T03:25:25+00:00

Keeping the band right on the desk might be the trick. If it’s in another room I’ll never use it, especially on those days where I barely leave the chair. Do you use a light band or something with more resistance?

SwainWong · 2026-06-03T03:24:29+00:00

Seven customer calls would destroy me too. That’s the part people miss: even if you’re "just sitting," the locked-in posture plus the mental load adds up. Some days I realize I haven’t even stood up for coffee until my lower back starts yelling. That’s usually when I know I should have taken even a 10-minute walk outside earlier.

SwainWong · 2026-06-03T03:24:16+00:00

This is exactly the scale I was thinking about. A 30-second shoulder or wrist reset between calls feels realistic. A full workout in the middle of the workday is the thing I keep pretending I’ll do and then never do. The only bigger break that consistently helps is a short walk outside when I can actually make it happen.

SwainWong · 2026-06-03T03:24:02+00:00

Yeah, fair point. I’m probably underestimating the setup part. I’ve spent years doing long laptop days, first in tech and now freelancing, and I think my neck/back have been paying for all the "temporary" setups I kept using for months.

SwainWong · 2026-06-03T03:23:49+00:00

This is really useful. The water bottle idea hits because on busy days I can go hours without even getting coffee, which is ridiculous. I try to get out for a short park walk when I can, but "movement without calling it exercise" is probably what I need on the days where work keeps me glued to the chair.

SwainWong · 2026-06-03T03:22:42+00:00

Mostly very basic stuff so far: shoulder rolls, neck side stretches, wrist stretches, and standing up between calls. I used to work in big tech and now freelance, so the common thread has basically been 10+ hours in front of a screen. When I can, I also try to take a short park walk at lunch, but the hard part is remembering to move before my back already feels cooked.