Is your Job Giving you a Pain in the Neck?

By Danna Snow

In today’s society, more people sit for a living then ever before. And because of this, people have more pain than ever before. So, what do you do about it? Do you quit your job? No. You go to the doctor and report shoulder, neck and head pain. Then you get some drugs and go back to work doing exactly what caused the pain to begin with, sitting. What if I told you there is something you can do to completely eliminate your pain, or at least, diminish it greatly?

Before I explain, you need to understand WHY sitting at a desk can cause so much havoc. Imagine yourself sitting in a chair. Are you sitting straight up with your shoulders back and chest forward? Chances are, you are not. Most likely, you are sitting with your shoulders rounded forward, chest tucked inward, chin up and head jutted forward. This is the problem which occurs when you sit for longperiods of time (like an 8 hour a day desk job). Your muscles fatigue and you are unable to hold “good” posture for very long at all.

So, how do you fix the problem? First, you need to get up from your desk and move around and then sit back down (get up and get a drink of water) frequently throughout the day. Then, you need to begin to work to strengthen the muscles between your shoulder blades and stretch the muscles of our chest. You have to basically retrain your body to remember what is good posture. Right now there is a tug-of-war going on between your back and your chest. The muscles of your chest then begin to shorten and the muscles of the back begin to stretch, putting a lot of strain on them. The back muscles are too weak to keep your shoulders back and this causes the pain…Basically, you have created a situation where your own body is
muscle strains.

Exercises which strengthen the upper back muscles are those which involve squeezing your shoulders blades together, such as rowing movements. A stretch for your chest is standing in a doorway, reaching your hands out to your sides about shoulder height and bracing them on the door jams while stepping through the doorway. You’ll feel the stretch in your chest. If you address the forward shoulders, the head jutting problem will fix itself.

Other suggestions to manage pain related to desk work are to get deep tissue massage on a regular basis and become more physically active. There are many Certified Personal Trainers and Physical Therapists in Spokane who would be able to develop a specific routine to address the above problems. The longer you go without addressing the problem, the more impact the poor posture will have on you as time goes on. Be happy in your work place, be pain free.