Day: November 30, 2025

• Sitting at a computer all day can lead to poor posture and back pain.
• Dr. Jason Snibbe, an orthopedic surgeon, shared tips for staying upright while you work.
• Find a chair with lower back support and armrests.

It’s tricky to maintain good posture while sitting at a desk for hours each day, but a few simple adjustments to your work setup could make a big difference, a top orthopedic surgeon said.

It’s thought that around 66% of Americans have what’s known as tech neck or forward head posture, where the head and chin protrude and put pressure on the neck.

It’s common in office workers who crane their necks to look at screens (big and small) all day. This can cause neck and back pain, headaches, and lead to more serious musculoskeletal problems, like kyphosis (curvature of the spine).

“When you’re sitting at a desk, your body gets stiff, your body gets tight,” Dr. Jason Snibbe, the official orthopedic surgeon of the LA Clippers, who also counts Kris Jenner as a patient, said.

But getting up from your desk and stretching or going on a short walk can help your muscles stay strong and flexible, he said.

Snibbe shared four tips for supporting good posture and preventing back pain if you work at a desk.

Try a standing desk

Using a standing desk can be a great way to take pressure off your spine and reduce the number of hours you spend seated each day, Snibbe said.

“Your body can shift and move,” he said.

A small 2024 study published in Healthcare found that people with forward head posture scored better in a postural assessment and muscle tiredness test after working at a standing desk for 30 minutes than those who used a regular desk. The standing desk group also scored higher in a self-reported comfort questionnaire.

AirPods are your friends

Snibbe tells his patients with sedentary jobs to set an alarm for every 30 minutes or so to remind them to get up from their desks and move around a little.

But he knows this isn’t always possible, so recommends using wireless headphones to integrate more movement into your working day.

“The beauty of that is people can now take calls. They can go on a walk and take a call, they can have a conversation, they can have a business meeting while they’re exercising, which I think is a wonderful, wonderful thing,” he said.

Use a chair with lower back support and armrests

It’s important to sit on a chair that has cushioning or some kind of support for the lower back, Snibbe said. It helps to keep the spine in correct alignment, which prevents slouching and back pain.

He said you should also choose a chair that has armrests, particularly if you’re working on computers and typing a lot, because they take stress off the neck and shoulders.

Getting a laptop stand, or simply placing some books under your computer to bring it to eye level, will also help you sit with the correct posture, he said.

Put resistance bands all over your office

When your work requires you to sit uninterrupted for hours, it means you’re not using and strengthening your muscles, but strong muscles play a big role in maintaining healthy posture.

To combat this, try tying resistance bands to handles, doors, or hooks around your office, and use them to do some strength training while you work. You can use them to internally and externally rotate your shoulders, for example, he said.

He suggested tying a band to the legs of your desk and pushing against it, mimicking a leg press. “So you’re activating your muscles, you’re moving, you’re getting the blood flowing,” Snibbe said.

• Barbara White downsized to a 55+ community after selling her Florida home for a profit.
• Demand for retirement communities is rising as older Americans seek active adult lifestyles.
• White likes the amenities, the proximity to family, and the freedom to travel more.

When Barbara White decided it was time to sell her four-bedroom house and downsize, it helped that she had 40 years of experience as a real estate agent to inform her search.

Still, it wasn’t easy to find her next home. After selling her property on Amelia Island in North Florida in July 2024 for nearly $500,000, she moved into a rental for six months while continuing to look for a smaller place closer to her two sons.

Finally, she bought a newly built, two-bedroom, 1,300-square-foot home in a new 55+ community about 200 miles south in Brevard County. She moved in last February. Crucially, she was able to use cash from her home sale to buy the new house, which she got for a bit less than its listed price of $250,000.

White, 72, is part of a surge of older Americans moving to retirement communities. Over the last decade, there’s been an explosion in demand for age-restricted “active adult” or independent living, particularly in the Sunbelt. Perhaps the country’s most famous retirement community, The Villages, has become one of Florida’s fastest-growing metro areas.

As Americans live longer, healthier lives, they want to retire in “aspirational” places that focus more on activities, hobbies, and community than healthcare, said Bob Kramer, founder of the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care (NIC).

“As people are living longer, you have people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s who are just looking for a lifestyle alternative,” Kramer said.

Are you 65 or older with a story to share about your housing? Reach out to this reporter at erelman@businessinsider.com or fill out this form.

White has found it easier to make friends in a community full of older people, and she’s taking advantage of some of the amenities and programming, including water aerobics.

She’s also relieved to live in a smaller home with about half the square footage of her last home and much less stuff filling it — she donated much of her old furniture to a family in need. She made a generous profit on her home sale and feels like she got a good deal as a buyer. Her previous home sold for $481,000 after she bought it seven years earlier for $243,000. The house doubled in value largely because of Florida’s pandemic-induced population boom, which pushed home prices way up across the state.

“Everybody from the Northeast was moving down to Florida. And every time you turned around, people were overbidding on the properties,” she said.

These days, White is semi-retired from her career as a realtor. She sold a few homes this year, but she’s only taking referrals and not actively seeking work. With Social Security and some savings, she feels financially secure. So she uses the income she makes from real estate to travel as much as she can. This past summer, she went to Norway. In recent years, she’s visited Prague, Budapest, and Vienna for the Christmas markets and gone island hopping in Greece in the summer. Sometimes, she wishes she could sell everything and travel full-time.

But for the time being, she’s happy with her slower pace of life in her new home.

“I keep busy doing nothing,” she joked. “The days and the weeks go pretty quickly.”