3 Ways to Work from Home Pain Free
Posted on May 28 2021
The new reality of work from home to prevent the widespread of the Covid-19 pandemic is putting a toll on our physical and mental health. Many of us are feeling negatives, overwhelmed, and not able to cope with stress. On top of that, we have to multi-task to keep ourselves productive, and juggle between home and work matters.
This has put us in situation where our habits and lifestyles have changed drastically to suit the new work environment. Most of the times, we lost count of the hours, days and how much our body need to rest from work. The prolonged time on work screens causing us to feel headache, neck strain and muscle pain all over. Neck spasm is common when we spent the whole day looking at computer. Before you know it, you feel a sharp pain from your muscles behind your neck. Question is, why doesn't it happen more frequently when we're working in the office? Well, it's most likely because of the prolonged sitting with the wrong posture.
Prolonged sitting will likely cause pain because your muscle tends to get stiff when its not being used. As gravity and fatigue take over with prolonged sitting, the alignment of your posture and spine changes leading to tightening and shortening of neck, back and hip musculature that can lead to muscle pain. In terms of mental effect, it can cause fatigue and exhaustion when your brain needs a lot of energy to focus and process all the information in the work screens.
Let's look at several methods to mitigate the effect of muscle and neck pain:
1. Ergonomic Workstation
Follow the ergonomic workstation guideline to create a comfortable work space. Make sure your computer screen is same height with your eyes level so that it's aligned with your neck. If your laptop is too low, you can stack some books and place laptops on top of it to increase heights that is same level with your eyes and adjust accordingly to ensure your arms can be rested. Keep your screen at your arms length away from your eyes. Try to use a headset or earphones when you're receiving calls so you don't have to tilt your head. Make sure your back is well supported and is sit straight to support your neck, avoid hunches and use a chair that has a proper lumbar support and arm rest.
Photo credits: Mayo Clinic
2. Stretching exercises
Have some stretching exercises every 45 minutes to keep your muscles active. This helps to release tension to avoid soreness from building up. It is suggested to stretch 1-3 times a day for best results. Stretching exercises should follow top down approach all the time.
The more we stretch, the more it increases our flexibility, range of motions and blood flow to the muscles. Studies have shown that headaches and muscles tensions can be relieve with stretching exercises.
See some quick tips on 5-min stretches from Physiowerkz. This is a great wellness solution for you.
Get a test to assess your movement diagnosis parameters to help you treat root cause of the problems here
3. Get up and move
Regular exercise is another good option to stay healthy and active. However if you're too busy at work, a quick 5-mins activity such as walking around the house, taking the laundry to wash, making yourself a cup of tea and moving your hands and legs will loosen up your underused muscles.
While we've heard of sports injury massages for those who over exercise, pain also happens to those who rarely exercise. Prolonged sitting is another form of physical inactivity which could eventually result in chronic pain. Studies have some shown that inactivity will cause weakened muscles and joint pain. While there are physiotherapy services that help to solve musculoskeletal cases such as shoulder pain, knee pain, back pain, osteoarthritis, these can definitely be prevented in the long term by practicing short exercises into our daily habits.
Try this quick activity tips from VL Therapy to improve coordination and balance:
Lastly, hydrate and nourish is important to keep our body healthy during the work day. Keep healthy snacks like nuts, seeds, dried fruits around your workstation to prevent from going to kitchen to find sweet drinks or unhealthy food. We need to constantly feed our body with healthy intake, good exercises and positive vibes to improve our immune system. Effortless provides home physiotherapy services to assist individuals having pain from numerous reasons. If you or your family members need help, contact us.