Working from Home: Is it Taking a toll on your Neck and Back Pain?

Many people have begun working from home in the past few months and in most cases, few had much  time for planning as to how their new work environment would be structured.  To further complicate things, parents are facing the stress of  balancing working from home while serving as home-school substitute teacherand activities director for their children during very uncertain times.

The stress of all of this, combined with subpar workstation setup is taking a toll on many Amercians’ necks and backs.  Many find themselves experiencing exacerbation or flare-ups of chronic neck and back pain. For others, they are experiencing new aches and pains that are simply not getting better and often, are becoming more painful and bothersome as the weeks turn into months of working from home.

Parents (and students too for that matter) find themselves sitting on the couch, at the kitchen table or on the floor hunched over their laptops or other devices for hours, and begin to experience aches, pain and stiffness in their neck, shoulders and back.

When we sit in a certain position for a few minutes, the muscles that support our low back and neck become tired and relax. Our body sags and this results in slouched sitting posture. If we maintain this slouched sitting posture for long enough, it causes overstretching of ligaments and pain. Once the slouched sitting posture has become a habit and is maintained most of teh time, it may also cause distortion of the discs contained in the vertebral joints. Once this occurs, movements as well as positions produce pain.

Steps  you can take to alleviate your Back and Neck pain

You don’t need fancy office equipment to promote good posture and optimal workstation set up at home.  Here are some tips you can implement to improve your workstation posture at home:

Ergonomic setup:

• Position your computer or device  so that the monitor is at or slightly below eye level.  This can be accomplished by putting a few books, shoe boxes or old phone books underneath your laptop or device to bring it up to your eye level.  If sitting on the couch while doing your work (not ideal, but I understand that we all resort to this at times), you can put a pillow on your lap and then place your laptop on the pillow to raise the screen up to eye level.  The same holds true for when we are on our smart phones- BRING IT UP TO EYE LEVEL!
• Use a chair with good back support when possible. If you don’t have an office type chair, you can position pillows behind your back to provide optimal back support and posture.
• Raise your chair up if possible (most kitchen tables and desks are too high) so that you can position your arms and wrists in a neutral or straight position rather than needing to position your wrists and arms up or down to reach your keyboard.
• Support your feet on a phone book, step stool, etc., if they don’t firmly touch the ground while sitting.

Movement

• While sitting posture and ergonomics is important, incorporating movement throughout your day is an integral component of a pain-free work from home (or at your office too!) day.
• Take time to get up and walk around every hour while sitting to work.
• Incorporate stretching exercises to help loosen tight and achy muscles (a Physical Therapist can advise you as to the best stretches to perform for your condition)
• Strive to incorporate a minimum of 30 minutes of cardiovascular activity (walking, jogging, biking, etc) most days of the week.
• Get outside! Vitamin D helps to improve our immune system health and bone health.
• Stay hydrated: aim to drink at least half your body weight in water each day.

Final Thoughts

• If you have pain that just isn’t going away, Telehealth Physical Therapy may be just the thing you need to help you get rid of your pain, soreness and stiffness. We can assess your work station and offer helpful ideas for making it more ergonomic. Click here to LEARN More

AND, DON’T FORGET YOUR KIDS- THEY ARE “WORKING” WITH SUBOPTIMAL WORKSTATIONS AS WELL. THESE SAME PRINCIPLES APPLY TO OUR KIDS… THEY GET ACHES AND PAINS TOO!!!