“Most Fridays at the end of the day I often have a nagging pain between my shoulder blades, sometimes in my arms or neck as well. The pain goes away over weekend, so I think it comes from work. I’ll add that I sit at the computer almost all day. Do you have any tips on how I can prevent that pain?”
-Question by Linda
Mark Chen, physical therapist
In your question there seems to be a clear connection between your work and your discomfort.
It is probably worth checking your workplace first: Is everything ergonomically adjusted? What is your posture during your work and how often do you change it?
We have an important saying in Physiotherapy that goes like this:
“You best posture is your NEXT posture”
Working behind a computer has a bad reputation, and rightly so. It provokes positions that have unfavorable effects on the way your body is loaded. The head moves forward, the neck gets a forced angle, the shoulders are raised and often come forward, the upper back is hunched and the lower back often follows.
Each and every one of these “wrong” movements (are they?) could be slowly adding to the issue.
If this happens incidentally, the body can handle it just fine. But hours at a time, several days a week, year after year, is a different story. Movement patterns get stuck and slowly become a standard part of your posture. Sooner or later this will cause issues.
My advice is simple: have your situation and body checked by someone who knows about it.
In addition, make sure that you become aware of your own posture and habits. Don’t fall into, and accept an “easy” pattern but work against it.
A great start would be taking micro breaks in which you reverse the pattern. Think exercises in which the neck is straightened, the shoulders go back and the posture is kept active and upright. You can make this a little easier for yourself by hanging post-its and we have great programs and software that even remind you to get your exercises in.
That can all be a great help but in the end it’s up to you, you’ll have to take initiative!