With many office workers shifting the work station home we are starting to see quite a lot of Working from Home Pain! Mostly due to postural overload with a less than ideal set up or lack of movement playing key roles. Our top 2 tips for reducing or preventing working from home pain:
1. Move more and move often!
Take every opportunity to move. A key difference between many home and office set ups is the distance between the desk, bathroom, kitchen, coffee shop, printer, carpark or meeting room. This can make the target of 10,000 steps per day even harder to achieve. Taking regular walking breaks either; around the house, down the street or to get a coffee will do wonders for reducing and preventing working from home pains.
2. Look after your spine!
These 4 movements are a good starting point to make sure your spine is still moving and not fused into the shape of your chair. All movements should start gentle and be painfree. Contact physiotherapist if any pain is present.
- Bow and arrow
Sidelying, draw top elbow back and down towards the ground. Feel for movement in between the shoulder blades
- Figure 4 stretch
Place ankle on opposite knee, pull knee towards chest with both hands. Feel for stretch through gluts.
- Cobra
Lying flat on tummy, push head and shoulders up – leaving pelvis on the ground. Feel for movement through lower back
- Lumbar rotations
Lying flat on back, gently rock knees to one side. Feel for movement through lower back.
