Do you suffer from headaches, neck pain or back pain after sitting at your desk?

If your answer is YES, then be assured that you are not alone.

The fact is that with today’s technological advances most of us spend anywhere from 6 to 8 hours a day sitting at our desks working on a computer, laptop or mobile devices whether this is part of your work, study or simply spending leisure time.

Sitting for long hours at a time makes it extremely difficult to maintain proper posture. That’s because we are not made to for it, so many of us have the tendency lean forward, slouch our shoulders and hunch our backs. The unfortunate consequence of restoring to this kind of improper posture is the increase in unnecessary stress on multiple areas in your body including the neck, shoulders, back and arms resulting in pain and discomfort.

Adapting to poor posture on a repeated basis can affect your health and overall performance.

What are the effects of poor posture?

• Poor Joint Alignment
• Increased muscle tension
• Increase joint compression
• Reduced blood flow
• Reduced lung expansion resulting in poor oxygenation
• Fatigue
• Reduce performance

How to fix it?

Fortunately headaches, neck pain or back pain caused by poor posture can be fixed with the following preventative measures:

1. Ergonomics

You may have heard of the term, ergonomics. To put it simply, ergonomics is a scientific discipline that aims to create sustainable workspace or environment to optimise productivity while maintaining health and safety standards.

Creating a sustainable work space environment begins with personalizing the setup of your desk, chair and equipment. Here are a few tips to keep in mind. 

Ergonomic Chair Setup: Sitting 

Adjust your chair
 There is no one-size fits all, so it is important to make your chair ergonomically fit for you.

• Balanced posture. Sit well back into the chair with an upright and balanced posture.
• Neutral spine. Slightly tilt the backrest forward to rotate pelvis so spine is in neutral position. You may intermittently recline back ever so slightly to offload your back.  
• Hips high, feet flat. Adjust height of your chair so your hips are slightly higher than your knees, feet are resting flat on floor and at hip width apart. You may use a foot stool as an alternative if necessary.
• Sit close. Scoot your chair close to the desk with little space left between the desk and your stomach

Ergonomic Desk Setup: Sitting 

• Arms reach. Organise your frequently used stationary so that they are arms reach away.
• Keyboard. Position keyboard directly in front of your body.
• Elbows off. Keep elbows close to your body resting on the hand rests but off the desk. Only the muscular aspect of your forearm makes contact with the desk.
• Stable neck. Setup your desk so as to limit excessive head movements.
• Main monitor. Working with two monitors can be tricky, so use one as the primary monitor. Ensure monitor is centered and positioned at arms length. Height of the monitor should be adjusted so the top one third of the screen aligns with your line of vision

Ergonomic Desk Setup: Standing 

• Posture.
  
  Stand tall, balanced and with your shoulder relaxed. Position your feet hip width apart for a strong base of support to anchor the weight of your upper body. Ensure you do not hyper-extend at your knees.

• Elbow height.
  
  Elevate your standing desk to your elbow height.
  Bend your elbows to 90 degrees. Ensure elbows remain off the desk, only the muscular aspect of your forearm makes contact with the desk.

 

 

2. Time for a Micro-breaks

No matter how ergonomically perfect your desk set-up may be it is important to take micro-breaks frequently.

There is mounting research that has found that taking frequent, short micro-breaks can be just as taking long breaks, if not more beneficial.

So do not be afraid to stand, walk or stretch for 1-2 minutes every 30 minutes.

3. Desk stretches

Keep yourself flexible with the following stretches.

Cross body stretch

Stand upright and prepare to start the shoulder stretch exercise.
This exercise stretches the muscles in your upper arm, upper back and shoulder and can be performed either sitting or standing.
Move your arm across your chest at the height of your shoulder.
Use your other hand to gently hold your elbow and pull the arm a little further across.
You should feel the stretch across the back of your arm and shoulder.
Hold this position and return to the start position and repeat to the other side.

Back stretch

Stand with your legs at hip width apart and straight.
Place your hands on your hips.
Lean your body backwards, trying to arch in the lower back as much as you can, lifting your chest up towards the ceiling.
Try to avoid allowing your hips to swing forwards too far.
Hold this position before returning to the start position

Side stretch

Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and place one hand on your hip.
Extend the other hand into the air, leaning over to the side while you increase the stretch by pushing your hips in the opposite direction.
Hold this position before you repeat on the other side. 

Chest opener

Start in a standing position.
Move your arms behind you and interlock your fingers and move your arms slowly upwards.
As you lift your arms upwards you will feel a stretch in your chest and shoulders.
Hold this position, then breathe out and relax.

Side neck stretch

Place one hand behind you in the curve of your lower back, and the other by your side.
Now, bend your neck so that your ear comes closer to the shoulder that is opposite to the arm behind your back.
Hold this position for 30-60 seconds.

Trunk rotations

Stand up straight with your feet shoulder width apart.
Place your hands together and stretch your arms out straight in front of you.
Keeping your hips pointing forwards, rotate your arms from one side and then to the other.
Your feet should remain on the floor throughout the exercise.
Try to feel the rotation coming from your mid to upper body.

Still having pain?

If you are still experiencing pain and discomfort it is recommended to consult a Physiotherapist.

A physiotherapist will assess your cause of pain and provide you with a comprehensive treatment that is correct for you.