Have you ever felt soreness or ache in your shoulder, neck or wrist? You are not alone. Surveys in the workplaces show that 6 out of 10 have the same problem as you. Let us take a look at the usual culprits that cause most of the working adults to suffer from the above discomforts and how we can combat these aches with simple office exercises you can do in your cubicle!
POOR POSTURE
Strain on the shoulder and neck
Many office workers tend to place their head towards the computer screen without noticing it themselves. As we get more engrossed with our work throughout the work day, our poor neck and shoulder has to support the heavy weight of the head (approximately 5kg), imagine a fishing rod with a bait of 5kg! Tension is thus created at the neck and shoulder muscles.
Round shoulder syndrome
A comfortable position for most working adults is to roll their shoulders to the front of body and curl up the lower back such that we are in the shape of the alphabet ‘C’. However, structurally, our human body is not designed to be in this shape! We put a lot of stress in our muscular and skeletal structure when we force it to be in an unnatural position. Try walking 10 metres with your feet pointing to each other and you will understand how uncomfortable it feels to put our body in an unnatural position.
LONG HOURS OF MAINTAINING IN THE SAME POSITION
Long duration of non-movement strains the muscular and skeletal system as they have to hold the body in a position for hours and to make matters worse, in a bad posture! The ‘fishing rod with a 5kg bait’ has to maintain in position for more than 3hours if you have bad posture from 9am to 12pm.
STRESS
You might find that body discomfort is especially frequent during stressful periods at work. As we get more stress at work, we tend to forget about maintaining a good posture.
WHAT WE CAN DO TO HELP OURSELVES
- Reminders to keep good posture
Set alarms throughout the work day to let change a position or take a stretch break, this relieves the body from long duration of tension in the same posture. It helps to have a social support to correct bad posture – form a ‘bad posture police team’ with the colleagues sitting around you, remind one another when we spot a bad posture.
- Office exercises to strengthen and build muscles to maintain good posture
We need strong muscles hold ourselves up in proper posture.
- Stretch exercise to relieve tension in the muscular and skeletal system
Here are some simple office exercises that you can do in your own cubicle. Remember to breathe naturally whenever you do the stretch exercises, do not hold your breath.
NECK
- Tilt neck to the right and use right hand to pull it towards the right shoulder, relax the left shoulder towards the floor, hold for 20 seconds, repeat on the left.
- Turn the head to look over the right shoulder, hold for 20 seconds, repeat on the left.
SHOULDER
- Hold right elbow with left hand and pull the elbow towards the left, hold for 20 seconds, repeat on the left.
- Hold a hand towel at both ends, rotate shoulder to the front with elbows straight and to the back.
- Hold right hand with left, if you cannot do this yet, try holding a towel with 2 hands and shorten the distance of towel over time. Hold for 20 seconds, repeat on the left.
- Stand up from your chair, place the palm on your table with palms facing each other. Straighten the legs and body and press body towards the floor, hold for 20 seconds. Look ahead to the front if you have low or high blood pressure.
CHEST
- Hold both hands at the back and try to lift up the hands towards shoulder level, hold for 20 seconds, repeat on the left
- Place both hands at the back of the head and arch backwards, look at the ceiling, hold for 20 seconds, repeat on the left. Look ahead to the front if you have low or high blood pressure.
If you wish to find out more on office exercises or how to stretch and strengthen to prevent body discomfort, check out our SpineWorks program, an ergonomics program that covers in details what to do to alleviate body discomfort due to poor posture. For more information, please email to info@fhi-online.com.