Here’s something I heard from a patient last week…
“My neck, upper back and shoulders have been so painful that I’ve suffered from a bad nights sleep for almost a year.
No matter what I do, shoulder pain always seems to find me. I sit down most of the day at a computer, I’ve tried to improve my posture, but it just hasn’t worked.”
Grace, 56, Dalton Piercy.
Grace currently works a 9-5 job 5 days a week, and has done most of her life.
And if you’re still at work, (or even if you’re not and spend a lot of time sitting down), it’s important to consider the impact your job could be having on your health.
Take this statistic for example…
Did you know that in a study based on office workers, that 45% of people suffer from shoulder pain?…
I want you to be aware of this so you can avoid, or at least limit your day job from impacting your health and causing you problems in years to come.
When most of us spend 8 hours plus at a desk to pay the bills, it’s no wonder why our bodies begin to suffer, and if you work at a desk job, it’s likely that you spend more time at your desk than you do doing anything else!
And yet, that time is often spent sitting in a chair that is too low, with a desk that’s too high and our necks placed in awkward positions looking at the screen, (and as you know, having your body at funny angles can cause all sorts of aches and pains)…
Now my patient Grace mentioned that she had tried to fix her posture, which of course is one of the first things we look at trying to fix!
But what Grace hadn’t considered, is her office space and how her desk is set up…
To avoid common shoulder pain that can creep up on us at work, it might be a good idea to do a desk audit – we can correct our posture but if our desk is set up incorrectly, then that’s going to cause problems!
So, to lessen the risk of shoulder pain, make sure your desk chair is positioned at the proper height so that you can type without scrunching your shoulders up.
You want to sit in a chair at a height where you can sit comfortably with your shoulders relaxed and pulled back. Make sure you’re sitting up tall (as if a piece of string is attached to the crown of your head), and your forearms are parallel to the ground – in other words, meaning you don’t have to reach out far for your keyboard, or shrug your shoulders all day long!
You see, when your shoulders are shrugged upwards for 8 hours or more, tension builds up, and gradually over time this tension will cause you shoulder pain and all sorts of problems – including disturbing your sleep!
This doesn’t just apply to office workers either, your sitting posture at home can have an impact on your health too. So it pays off to be aware of how you’re sitting throughout the day, to remain active and healthy throughout your 50’s, 60’s and each year ahead!
To learn more about what you can do to combat neck and shoulder pain, visit my website here: www.paulgoughphysio.com/neck-shoulder-pain to download your free tips report, your shoulders will thank you for it!
You might know Paul as an expert Columnist who writes weekly health articles for TWO of the North East's biggest daily Newspapers, The Northern Echo And The Hartlepool Mail, he is a regular Speaker at Industry Seminars around the globe and a Radio Personality, often heard on the BBC. Paul has been an expert guest on dozens of Radio shows and regularly interviewed in newspapers, magazines and trade journals all over the world, including the Guardian.
Paul’s background included working extensively in the Premier League with a Top Professional Football Team, and since quitting his job in Professional Football in 2007, his Physio Practice has become the fastest growing in the UK and biggest in the North East. So successful, that companies like BUPA, ASDA, The Vela Group And Coast & Country, repeatedly retain his Physio company's services to keep healthy their own staff and workforce. Paul Gough Physio Rooms is now a large multi-physio, multi clinic speciality practice in Darlington, Durham, Guisborough and Hartlepool.
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