While blogging can be a great avenue for you to use your voice and perfect your craft of writing, it can actually deter your health if you’re not careful—especially with “extreme bloggers,” a term I give to professional and truly dedicated bloggers who devote all of their time and hard work to their blogs and their readers. Think about it: you reduce your amount of exercise because you sit down all day which could cause weight gain and obesity; you stare at the computer screen which can negatively affect your eye sight; and excessive typing can cause carpel tunnel syndrome. It’s awful, but preventable. That said, below are a few tips you should consider taking to ensure that you passion for blogging doesn’t interfere with your health in the slightest.
1. Sedentary Dangers
The math is simple: sitting in a sedentary position for more than four hours a day + no additional physical activity throughout the day = an array of health complications. Weight gain and obesity is the most obvious since reports show that not only are the enzymes that break fat reduced by 90% as soon as you rest your bottom to a chair, but you only burn one calorie per minute in a sitting position. Research also shows that those with sitting jobs are twice more likely to contract cardiovascular diseases than those with standing jobs. Thus, when experts say that sitting can potentially kill you, they mean it. Switching out your chair for a yoga ball and doing some sitting exercises can help, but actually making the effort to get up and move around a bit between each blog posting can really help as well. Make sure to take a few laps around the block, use workout videos, or join a gym to get in some “real” physical activity at some point in the day.
2. Fighting Blindness
Whether you’re creating your next potentially award winning blog post, shuffling through guest post pitches, or just researching for your next possible topic, make sure that you give your eyes a break from the harsh computer screen every now and then. You won’t go blind per say, but research does show that you can increase your chances of developing short-sightedness. Not to mention, computer screens can cause headaches. Experts suggest turning away from your computer screen every hour to give your eye a break, but closing them or walking outside should do the trick as well. Remember to adjust the screen lightening and contrast so that it doesn’t strain your eyes too much.
3. Avoiding Carpel Tunnel
Sore hands and wrists is just an aftermath of typing all day—but if you’re not careful, you can possibly develop a more serious condition like carpel tunnel syndrome or tendinitis. To make sure you’re not overworking your hands, stretch them periodically. You can massage your hands and rotate your wrists. Or you can try spinning a tennis ball carefully in your palm.
Like mentioned before, blogging is a great way to release your creativity, just take precautions to ensure that it does jeopardize your health.
This article is written by Amelia Wood. She writes for Medical Billing and Coding and various blogs. If you wish to write for HBB, kindly check this.