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On Friday at the end of the day I often have a nagging pain between my shoulder blades, sometimes also in my arms or neck. At the weekend that pain goes away again, so I think it comes from work. I sit in front of the computer almost all day. Do you have any tips on how I can prevent that pain?
Linda
In your question there seems to be a clear connection between your work and your complaints. It is probably worth checking your workplace. Is everything ergonomically adjusted? What is your attitude during your work?
Working behind a computer has a bad reputation, and for good reason. It provokes movements that have adverse effects on the way your body is loaded. The head moves forward, the neck is forced to kink, the shoulders are hunched and often come forward, the upper back slumps and the lower back follows. Each and every one of these “wrong” movements is bad for you. When piled up, they can be called disastrous.
If this happens occasionally, the body can handle it just fine. But hours in a row, several days a week, years in a row, is a different story. Movement patterns grind into it and slowly become a standard part of your posture. Sooner or later hear here complaints Bee.
So have everything checked by someone who understands it. In addition, make sure you become aware of your own attitude. Don’t fall into an “easy” pattern, go against it. This can be done very well by taking breaks where you reverse the pattern. So exercises in which the neck is straightened, the shoulders are pulled back and the posture is kept active and upright. You can make this a little easier on yourself by putting up post-its and there are special programs available to download to help you remember to take a break. But in the end it’s up to you, you’ll have to do it yourself!
Do you also have a question? Then ask one of our experts. Always go to your doctor with urgent questions, the experts are not the right person for that. They also do not diagnose. You can find the other conditions here.
Mark Chen is a physiotherapist and NASM trained personal trainer at OCA in Alphen aan den Rijn. His expertise lies in analyzing and optimizing movement patterns. Dry needling and medical taping are an important part of his vision and training predominates.