Spine Health and Office Work

It may sound strange, but it’s true: office work, the kind where you sit at a desk for hours a day, working on a computer, is bad for your spine—without daily small interventions, it may even be bad for your health and wellbeing. There is even a saying that compares sitting to smoking. But it’s not something that we can’t overcome: many people work at a desk for a minimum of 7 hours a day, five days a week. The desk-sitting posture can contribute to pain and abnormalities that are difficult to overcome without chiropractic intervention. While a person is locked into desk-sitting posture, the hip flexors remain in a contracted state; the head is forward and the shoulders are rounded; the muscles that make up the lower back are tensed. It’s a bad combination that can have a negative impact on the spine.

There are several exercises that can help alleviate the stress from desk-sitting posture. It’s also a good idea to try to gain postural awareness and change any ergonomics (Chair, desk height, etc.) that contribute to poor posture.

First, develop an awareness for how you are seated. When you sit, the shoulders should be back in a natural position and the head and the spine should be in alignment. When people tire of sitting at their desks, they tend to slouch, and when we slouch our alignment can cause stress on the spine (Slouching could even be a primary inducer of headaches).

It’s important to stretch the muscles, and in addition to stretching it’s important to straighten certain muscle groups such as the glutes and rhomboids. Take eye breaks from the screen every thirty minutes and stretch. If you can, take short walks to get the body moving.

Hopefully you don’t have pain associated from work, but if you are in need of chiropractic intervention, both in the form of alignment and advice (You chiropractor at Larson Chiropractic can recommend proper stretches and exercises) then call and schedule your next appointment today.