Does this situation sound familiar? Stooping over a laptop for hours on end, frantically trying to stay productive whilst you work from home in a set up that is less than ideal, during yet another lockdown! If this sounds like your current situation then you are at risk of developing postural related neck pain – if you haven’t already.
The office of national statistics revealed during the first lockdown 50% of the entire working population was working from home and that hasn’t changed substantially in recent months. Which leaves millions of people in the unfortunate position of being cramped up at a poorly fitted desk or shuffling around an uncomfortable dining chair for most of the day. It’s no secret that sitting behind a desk all day isn’t the best idea for someone’s neck. Even with the best desk setup money can buy most of the desk-based workforce will receive persistent postural neck pain at some point in their career. This prevalence is only going to increase during these unprecedented times.
What can you do to reduce your chances of getting neck pain?
Well, if there is only one thing you take from this blog its to re-assess your screen height. Laptop workers are a physio’s worst nightmare as it causes you to look down for long periods of time which leaves you at a significantly greater risk of developing neck pain. So, get that screen to eye level! Stack it on anything you can get your hands on to bring it up. If your screen height is below eye level it causes you to persistently flex your neck which in turn causes a forward chin poke posture. This incredibly common postural issue exponentially increases the amount of strain it puts on your neck muscles and is a common cause of postural related neck pain.
The muscle which is at the heart of most peoples postural related neck pain is the levator scapulae. This is the muscle that is persistently tight if you have a forward chin poke posture. If we couple this with the fact that most of the desk-based workforce have some shoulder weakness which causes more strain on your neck muscles (levator scapulae). This muscle tension is often the explanation as to why people complain of shoulder blade pain and can in some cases cause headaches.
The muscle which is at the heart of most peoples postural related neck pain is the levator scapulae. This is the muscle that is persistently tight if you have a forward chin poke posture. If we couple this with the fact that most of the desk-based workforce have some shoulder weakness which causes more strain on your neck muscles (levator scapulae). This muscle tension is often the explanation as to why people complain of shoulder blade pain and can in some cases cause headaches.
There are of course thousands of other explanations to people’s neck pain, however the ones outlined in this blog are by far the most common reasons. That said it is always best to make sure you get any neck pain which has persisted for more than 6 days checked out by an expert here at The Back and Body clinic. We will run through a few simple tests to understand the underlying cause of your issues and put together a personalised treatment plan to get you back working without that nagging neck pain that you have unfortunately got far too used too.
Don’t settle for being in pain – let us help you.
written by Physiotherapist Thomas Pearson.