Back pain from sitting at a desk

What sitting actually does to your back

Seated, the lumbar discs carry more load than they do standing, particularly if you lean forward towards a screen. The hip flexors shorten from being folded for hours, the glutes largely switch off, and the deep spinal stabilising muscles stop doing much work because the chair is doing it for them. Stand up after three or four hours of that and the whole system has to reactivate in a hurry, which is often exactly when people notice the twinge or stiffness.

Office desks versus working from home

It's a common assumption that an office desk is worse than working from home, but for many people the opposite is true. Office desks and chairs are at least designed with some ergonomic thought, whereas a laptop balanced on a kitchen table or perched on a sofa arm often has no adjustable chair height, no proper monitor height and no lumbar support at all. If you split your week between the two, it's worth applying the same standards to your home setup that you would expect at a desk in the office.

DSE assessments — and how to ask for one

If you're a UK employee who regularly uses a computer as a significant part of your job, you're entitled to a Display Screen Equipment (DSE) workstation assessment under health and safety regulations, whether you're office-based or working from home. This typically covers chair adjustment, monitor height and distance, keyboard and mouse position, and lighting. If you haven't had one, or your setup has changed since your last one, it's reasonable to ask your manager or HR for a fresh assessment — it costs the business nothing and often flags an easy fix that's been causing weeks of discomfort.

Getting the chair and desk right

• Hips slightly higher than knees, feet flat on the floor or on a footrest
• Lumbar support sitting at belt height — a rolled towel works well if your chair has none
• Armrests set so your shoulders can relax down, not hunch up
• Screen top roughly at eye level, an arm's length away, so you're not leaning forward or craning down
• Keyboard and mouse close enough that your elbows stay near your sides

Movement snacks: short breaks that actually add up

"Movement snacks" — brief bursts of movement scattered through the day — tend to help more than one long walk or stretch session. The idea is simple: interrupt sustained sitting often enough that no single position gets held long enough to cause trouble.

• Stand up for at least 60 seconds every 30 minutes, even just to refill a water glass
• Take phone calls standing or walking rather than seated wherever possible
• Set a recurring reminder if your job makes it easy to lose track of time at a screen
• Use the walk to the printer, kettle or front door as a deliberate posture reset rather than rushing it

A five-minute daily routine

• Hip flexor lunge stretch, 30 seconds each side
• Glute bridges, 10 slow repetitions
• Cat–cow through the spine, 10 rounds
• Standing back extension, 5 gentle repetitions, hands on hips

Doing this once at lunchtime and once at the end of the day gives your back two proper resets rather than none.

The evening reset that breaks the cycle

Posture fixes stop the problem getting worse; they rarely undo tension that's already built up by the time you close the laptop. A 15-minute session with heat and kneading across the lower back after work is what most of our desk-bound customers describe as the thing that finally broke the daily cycle of stiffness. Doing it on the sofa while you'd be scrolling anyway means it costs no extra time in an already busy evening.

If your discomfort sits more across the shoulders and upper back than the lower back, our upper back and shoulder pain guide covers that pattern specifically. And if you also spend time behind the wheel commuting, the guide for drivers has seat setup advice worth adding to your desk changes.

When desk pain needs more than a setup fix