Life hack for neck and shoulder pain
Do you find you get neck and shoulder pain by sitting at your desk on the computer often? This is one of the biggest problems we see with office workers in New York, so we’ve come up with five quick life hacks to help get your pain to go away without having to move away from your office.
Chin Tucks
This exercise will help to train you to keep your head back rather than forwards. So simply push your head back with your finger and then move your head forwards and then push back. Do this ten times.
Scapular Activation
Remain sitting, but bring your arms up in a kind of a star-jump like shape. With your arms in the air, move your shoulders up and down. These scapular elevations help to ease the pressure on your traps and to reduce pain and aching. Do this exercise ten times.
Posterior Shoulder Exercise
For this one, you’ll need to stand up and stand in front of a door way (keep the door open). The posterior shoulder muscles are activated on this exercise by stretching your arms out at a 9:15 type position (ie left arm towards the 9, right arm towards the 3). You will be slightly in front of the door frame, and you are going to lean back slightly so that your arms touch the frame. At this point, use the posterior back muscles to push you forwards to your original position. Move back and forth like this ten times. You can even adjust the angle of your arms to activate other muscles.
Pec Stretch
This further helps relax and assist the posterior muscles and stretches the pecs at the same time. Using the same doorway, put your arms up with elbows at 90 degrees and lean into the frame. This time you are going to use the pec muscles to hold you back up. Not only does this exercise stretch the pecs, but it pushes your shoulders back and gives your traps a bit of relief.
Trap Stretch Each Side
Finally, back at the desk and sit upright with one arm behind your back. Your other arm should wrap over your head and effectively grab it. You will then use your arm to pull your head down to stretch your neck muscles. Do this gently and hold for 30 seconds, and then repeat the other side. You can again try different angles to stretch the muscles differently. This exercise is designed to stretch the traps out well.
For further clarification and a visual on these five exercises, check out the video below. These exercises should really help you to stretch yourself out more and to allow your muscles to function correctly and ease any pain or aching you find from working in front of your computer for hours at a time.
Remember, if you are in pain we can help. We can help reduce or remove pain and get the body moving more properly to avoid injury. When out of pain, you can enjoy life more and perform better.
We have three simple ways you can make an appointment:
Call now on (212)371 2000 or
text (315)873-3095
or email us at Your.Friends@BackAndBodyNY.com
Looking forward to helping you get better fast.
