Tension Prevention #1: Headaches At Work

It’s hard to believe that we are already in December!  2015 sure did fly by!  I was reflecting on this blog recently and when I was looking back, I noticed that it has been just over a year since I started writing.  It certainly doesn’t feel like it, but I guess time sure does fly when you’re having fun.  Before we get started, I wanted to take a moment to thank you for being with me on this journey.  It has been such an awesome experience being able to provide information to you all in this public forum and I have been getting a lot of quality feedback from you, so knowing that you are enjoying learning about the material I present further challenges me to find topics that interest you to continue this passion.

On to this months topic.  I have been hearing a lot of clients come to me with neck pain and headaches that they get while at work.  While a massage treatment can help to alleviate these symptoms, it is unrealistic to have treatments on a 24/7 basis.  Quite a few people have requested that I do an article on you can do at work to help prevent this discomfort.

If you are in at a desk all day, your body will adapt and stiffen certain muscles and weaken others to help you maintain the position.  These changes, if not corrected, will cause muscle strain, trigger points (or knots) and joint irritation.  All of these can cause pain, discomfort and headaches.  Here are a few things that you can do to prevent this from happening.

• Get Up And Move.  Your body is designed to move and when you are stationary for prolonged periods, your body will stiffen to adapt to the posture.  I usually recommend about ever hour to an hour and a half to get up and go for a small walk.  Even 5-10 minutes will make a huge difference!

• Stay hydrated through the day.  Water will help keep the muscles and joints lubricated for freer movement. reducing muscle stiffness and discomfort (Anspaugh, Hamrick, 1991p.155)

• Proper Position.  To ensure that your body does maintains proper function while at work, ensuring your body is in the proper position to minimize the muscle imbalance.  Having a proper ergonomic assessment for your work space will help, and doing a simple Google Search and make adjustments for your home computer can help when you’re not in the office.

• Simple Exercises. Getting into a regular routine at the office can help restore balance to your body and reduce your headaches.  Here are a few easy and safe exercises to incorporate into your workplace routine:

• Holding your hands out in front of you, interlock your thumbs. Take a deep breath in and lift your arms above your head.  Exhaling, lower your arms, elbows first, to your side.  This downward movement will help bring your shoulders together to build stability in the mid-back.  By building this stability will help to pull the shoulders out of internal rotation and take pressure off of your neck. Perform this exercise 3-4 times per day at about 10 repetitions.

Pretend your chin is a drawer and push it in, keeping your chin parallel to the floor.  This exercise will help to stretch the muscles at the base of the neck while strengthening the muscles in the front of the neck.  While looking at a computer all day will cause your head to tilt forward and by doing this exercise will help to correct the imbalance.  Try doing this exercise 5 times a day at 7 repetitions per cycle and holding for 5 seconds.

Sitting on your hand or holding onto the bottom of a chair, bring your ear to the opposite shoulder.  This will stretch out shortened upper trapezius and lateral neck muscles.  Hold each stretch for 30 seconds and repeat 4 times.

Please let me know what you think abotu this article - I am thinking of developing a series like this to help with various things if there is enough interest.

I hope you all have a great month, and I will see you soon!

Reference:

Anspaugh, D., & Hamrick, M. (1991). Wellness: Concepts and applications. St. Louis: Mosby Year Book.