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Neck and Shoulder Pain At Work? Try this!

Even before Covid, people have been prone to spending hours in front of a computer, either for work, school, or even just for entertainment. This is what we are going to fix here by doing some simple neck and shoulder exercises for office workers.  And when we’re in front of computers, we tend to disregard our posture. Most people who sit in front of their computers all day tend to lean their necks forward. Long periods in this position are bound to give referral pain patterns. It is important to do short exercises that will get them into neck extension.Before we even begin with exercises, there is an important thing to consider. The chairs that you or your patients use must be of the right height for the legs and back. It must have back support and elbow rests. This is important because often, an uncomfortable chair can affect our posture when we sit, which is one of the leading causes of neck and shoulder pain.

Step-by-Step Guide for the Neck and Shoulder Office Exercise

In this article, I will share with you a few easy exercises to check your range. It is important to see how comfortable you are when you go into flexion, extension, and rotation. These exercises (neck and shoulder office exercises) will help determine whether you feel any restrictions in your movement whatsoever.

For the neck:

  1. Sit up straight, slowly tilt your head forward, bringing your chin to the chest.
  2. From this position, slowly tilt your head upward, until you are looking at the ceiling.
  3. Return to the starting position, looking straight ahead.
  4. Turn your head gently to the left, then to the right. Return to the starting position.
  5. Lastly, slowly lower your head to your right shoulder. You should be able to do this at a 45-degree angle without any restrictions. The shoulders should not hitch up, and instead, remain still.
  6. Return to the starting position, and repeat, slowly tilting towards the left shoulder.

Arm ranges to check with adductions, abductions, and flexions:

  1. For the starting position, hold your arms out on both sides.
  2. Raise both hands up overhead. Repeat 5 times. this is to check elevation.
  3. Return to starting position. Then slowly swing your arms forward to check horizontal flexion. Repeat 5 times.
  4. Return to starting position, then stretch them backward to check extension. Pull your shoulders back as far you can. Repeat 5 times.
  5. Lastly, do figure of 8 movements.

For the elbows:

  1. Hold out your arms in front of you, palms up.
  2. Bend your elbows up towards you. Repeat this 5 times, then return to the starting position.
  3. Twist your arms outward gently. This is to test internal and external rotation.
  4. Lastly, try to do the figure of 8s movement with your elbows.

For the wrists and hands:

  1. You will start with the same starting position as the one from elbows. Bend your wrists upward five times.
  2. Then, move them from side to side.
  3. Lastly, do figure of 8 movements.
  4. Go back to starting position, then flip your hand over so that your palms are facing down.
  5. Bend your fingers 5 times.
  6. Then stretch them out, holding them apart from each other. Repeat this five times
  7. Lastly, try making piano movements with your fingers.

Another tip for your neck and shoulder office exercises

After these neck and shoulder office exercises, make them go through the neck ranges again, to see if they get any changes. Another tip I have today is to tuck the chin back into your neck. I always use the analogy of pretending that someone you really don’t like is coming up to you and is trying to give you a great big kiss on the chin. Naturally, you would be recoiling your head back.
  1. Tuck the chin in. This is the starting position.
  2. Hold your arms out to your sides, and then pull your shoulders back, like step 4 for the arm movements. hold for 10 seconds.
  3. Relax.
  4. Repeat it 5 more times.
I recommend doing these 2 to 3 times every day, as doing so will give you a lot more flexibility as well as reduce the pain in your neck and shoulders. For a demonstration of the movements, please watch the video.

Neck Pain at Work? Try This Easy Chest Stretching!

In today's blog post, we will talk more about stretching the chest in the office to help relieve neck pain.   With our STRANGE new WORLD, I have to ask these questions to my patients so often now…Are you working from home? Always in front of your computer for hours and hours each day?When we’re NOT at our regular work station with the ergonomic chairs and desks we seem to experience back and neck pain much more commonly.If that sounds like you then it’s a sign that you need to do something about it!Find strategies to help ease that pain.One of the most effective and easy ways to do that is to stretch the muscles in question. Well, at least it will help until you get to your therapist for their treatment skills!But before we dive into that, let me first talk about why stretching your muscles is important.

Let's begin knowing about Stretching the Chest in the Office to Help with Neck Pain...

This encourages the muscle’s ability to stretch (increased elasticity) it also allows for a better resting tone for your muscles. That means they can feel softer when you’re not doing anything. Feel them now for me – grip your upper trapezius (neck/shoulder muscles), do they feel tight when you squeeze them? That can indicate poor resting tone, yet another indicator that they could do with a stretch. (Stretching the Chest in the Office to Help with Neck Pain)With this in mind, we need to make sure that we regularly stretch those muscles to keep them strong, flexible, and healthy even when you’re just sitting around all day or have that cardio workout in your focus. Without stretching your muscles first, they would be short, less elastic, and tight. And when you make sudden, unmeasurable movements or do immediate heavy physical exercises, those activities can increase the chance of muscle strains and tears. This is why athletes and people who would do physical exercises go through full ranges of movement to warm the muscles and joints before workouts and take the time to stretch after their activities. They are trying to avoid injuries. 

So below are some of the benefits of stretching in our body:

  • Improve posture
  • Decrease back pain
  • Improve and prevent loss of range in motion
  • Prevent injury
  • Alleviate muscle tightness and tension
  • Decrease muscle soreness
  • Improve blood circulation
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More on Stretching the Chest in the Office to Help with Neck Pain...

Stretching also makes you feel good because this taps your parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for the rest and digest system in our body. This system helps slow our heart rates, improves the motility of the gastrointestinal tract, and increases the production of the “good” hormones that repair the body.Pretty amazing, right? So before you LAUNCH down in front of your computer or perhaps even now while you're sitting and reading this article, why not make the decision and stretch those tired and exhausted tight muscles.It literally takes only a few minutes; come on - I invite you to stretch and follow the steps that I’m gonna share with you on the video link or read and follow below!For this purpose, we’re going to focus only on stretching your chest muscles to alleviate your neck and back pain.Chapmans Reflexes Courses

So here are the steps you need to do to keep your neck and back healthy and free of pain.

  1. When you’re in front of your computer, place your hand palm on the side of your computer screen, twist your whole body to the side and place your other arm on the top of your chair. You would feel the tension in your chest muscle at this moment. Then finally turn your neck to the side away from your computer to stretch your neck and back.
  2. Repeat the first step but this time instead of the palm, use the back of your hand and do the same. At this moment you not only feel the tension in your chest muscle, neck, and back but also in your arms. This is perfect if you have been typing on your keyboard all day and your arms and hands are just sore.
  3. Use your other hand and repeat steps 1 and 2. 
After these steps, you would feel that your chest muscles, arms, neck, and back have been stretched and loosen a bit of tension that has grown over you while continuously working in front of your computer for hours.For better results and relief for your neck and back pain, do these stepsonce or twice daily. That’s it for this article. I hope this helps give you RELEVANT tips to feel better and healthier while working from home.
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