How To Ease Desk-Related Aches & Pains
If you spend most weekdays sitting at a desk, you probably find yourself in all kinds of discomfort by the time evening comes. You’ll stand up from your laptop rolling your shoulders and tilting your head from side to side in an attempt to ease the dull aches that seem to have settled into your muscles throughout the day. And then comes your “down-time”… where you might sit slouched on the sofa or hunched over your phone aimlessly scrolling through the day’s events. You then crawl into bed feeling stiff and achy, only to do it all the same the next day.
If that sounds unpleasantly familiar, it’s time to do something about it. The first 2 steps? 1: Sit up straight. 2: Keep reading.
What is ‘tech neck’?
Colloquially referred to as ‘tech neck’, this painful new condition comes from too much time spent hunched over our smartphones, tablets and/or laptops. It’s a position that our skeleton is not designed to be in for any prolonged period, and certainly not for the 6+ working hours most of us spend at a computer, plus 3-4 hours per day the average person spends on their phone. And it’s not just hear-say. In fact, a recent study found that looking down at your phone can add an extra 50 lbs of weight to your neck - a load it most certainly was not built to bear!
Why is this a problem? This huge additional pressure on the neck places significant stress on the cervical and thoracic spine (neck and upper back); over-loading the joints, nerves and muscles, and vastly speeding up the effects of wear and tear on this most delicate area of your body. The damage caused by ‘tech neck’ and too much time at your desk can manifest itself in varying levels of discomfort, from a slight headache to shoulder tension to severe neck or back pain. And it could get even worse. Over a long period of time, it can cause the discs in your spine to begin to deform and/or compress, leaving you with a chronic condition that you may be unable to reverse.
And if that wasn’t enough, a stooped stance impacts even more than just your joints and muscles. Your whole body and mind are affected. Research has shown that prolonged poor posture - like that caused by sitting incorrectly at work - can cause disrupted sleep, low mood, digestive issues, reduced circulation and lack of confidence. Any one of these can leave you feeling sluggish, achy and irritable, even before the actual physical discomfort settles in. As you can see, it might sound like an exaggeration but just correcting the way you sit at a desk or interact with your phone can leave you feeling brighter, taller, healthier and happier.
Some simple things you can do at home to help with ‘tech neck’ include:
Hold your phone at head height when you’re using it to stop you hunching over
Raise the top of your computer screen to eye level to straighten up your spine
Relax your shoulders - regularly rolling them down and back to prevent tension settling in
Get up regularly from your desk and move/stretch your body
If you really want to rid yourself of ‘tech neck’ or other desk-related aches and pains however, look to a professional like our highly-trained, highly-experienced and highly-helpful Pilates instructors.
Can Pilates help with my aches and pains?
Yes, yes, a thousand times - yes! Pilates is all about strengthening, lengthening, improving your mobility, making you more flexible and generally keeping you healthy and injury-free even as you age. And it’s low-impact too, meaning it won’t place any extra and unnecessary stress on your body.
A key focus in our much-loved practice is posture and - as we’ve discussed above - that’s one of the first things to go when you start a desk job. Hunching over laptops and phones, daily commutes in non-ergonomic chairs and too many hours spent at a desk without activating our muscles can all lead to slouched posture, daily aches in the neck, back, hips and/or glutes, and eventually chronic pain. Qualified and experienced Pilates instructors are there to help ease your discomfort so you can not just live - but thrive.
Thanks to apparatus like the Reformer and Cadillac and a combination of exercises (such as spine twists, shoulder bridges, core work, lunges, squats and more), regular Pilates sessions - whether Group or Private - will help to ease your ‘tech neck’ and desk-related aches and pains in the following ways:
Stretch out muscles that get tight and stiff from too much sitting
Reduce tension - particularly in the neck and shoulders - caused by hunching over your tech
Mobilise your joints so you can move comfortably and freely, even after a long working day
Build strength - especially in the core, back and glutes - to support good posture and overall health
Teach you to sit, stand and move with proper alignment to help you avoid injury and chronic pain down the line
Rehabilitate any areas of weakness or misalignment that are specific to you
Improve your body awareness for better posture, optimal movement and reduced injury risk
Help you to harness the mindful and physical power of your breath
And that’s not all! Come and join us in the studio and make regular Pilates your route to reduced aches and pains, long term.