If you’re like most Americans during the pandemic, you are working from home (WFH) or at least being more sedentary than before as gyms have been closed or restricted and most employers are asking their employees to stay home and work remotely. There are certainly benefits to WFH, such as working one’s pajamas on the couch and having easy access to snacks. However, it also means, less movement overall, which leads to a plethora of physical ailments. Even if you are diligent about reducing the amount of sitting you do at home, you are still going to be physically less active, while confined to your home.
For most of my patients, this decrease in physical activity and more time behind a computer screen has meant an increase in prevalence and frequency of minor to moderate upper and lower back pain as well as neck stiffness or pain. The fastest and easiest solution to this would be to see your trusty, local Seattle chiropractor 😉 . However, there certainly are things you can try at home first if you would like to save a visit to the chiro. These are also home care exercises that can and should be done in conjunction with receiving chiropractic adjustments.
The first, most basic maneuver is just to reset your body from a closed, flexed posture into an open, extended one. Standing (or sitting) erect with the chest open and shoulders back and ribcage down (not flared). A common mistake that patients do when being alerted to their poor posture is that they overcorrect and hyperextend their back and jut their chest and chin forward. This is almost equally as bad as it causes excessive lordosis in the lumbar spine, flattens the natural kyphosis in the thoracic spine, and reduces the natural lordosis in the cervical spine. It is also a position that is unsustainable and frankly looks awkward.
To reset your posture after sitting for 20-30 minutes, a simple maneuver is called “Bruegger’s relief.” A cue that I find is helpful is to imagine your shoulder blades (scapulas) being drawn by two strings into your opposite back jean pockets (left scapula to right back pocket and vice versa). This causes the scapula to lie flat against the back and to be drawn downwards. Scapular winging is a common occurrence amongst patients and is usually due to weakness in the serratus anterior muscle, but an entire article can be written on scapular winging, so that will be pinned for now.
If you watched the YouTube video above, there are some key things to note that the chiropractor in the video did not mention. One is to make sure that you are not flaring your lower rib cage as you are opening up your chest. This is a very common mistake that I’ve seen patients make when they lack thoracic mobility (that can be addressed with thoracic chiropractic adjustments). Also, when he is taking deep inhalations, he is activating his upper chest and neck muscles more than I would like to see. I would want more diaphragmatic breathing or deep “belly breathing” and less activation of the chest and neck, which activates the sympathetic nervous system (diaphragmatic breathing stimulates the vagus nerve and activates the parasympathetic nervous system).
Other helpful exercises for sedentary computer workers would be shoulder Y/T/W-exercises, push-up pluses, bird-dog, wall angels, etc. but the most foundational, basic exercise is the Bruegger’s relief posture.
If you have reduced your time sitting, have corrected your workstation to be more ergonomic, done Bruegger’s relief posture properly, done static and dynamic stretching and are still having neck and/or back issues, then you have done your own due diligence and now it is definitely time to see a professional. Schedule an appointment with your local chiropractor to get reset and relief.