Why sitting at your desk can be a pain in the….back!
Those who work at a desk for their job and are therefore sat down for between 6-8 hours a day can often find they are getting aches and pains in various places in the back. Changing a few things with your desk set up and adding a few good habits into your day can really help get your back in a good position.
Problems:
1. You are getting aches across the top of your back or between your shoulder blades
You may be hunching over at your desk. By sitting in this hunched position for long periods of time every day can cause the adaptive shortening of the chest (pectoral) muscles and an adaptive lengthening, and weakening, of the muscles across the top of the back and between the shoulder blades (trapezius and rhomboid muscles also potentially the rear deltoids.
This can then lead to the shoulders rolling forward and creating a curve in the top of the spine (kyphosis).
Which can all get very achey.
2. You are getting a stiff ache in your lower back
Issue 1: You are sitting with an excessive arch in your lower spine. There could be two possible cause of this- either your chair has too big a curve in the arch or you are sitting with a forward tilt of the pelvis. If you are using a good office chair with a good arch support then you need to ensure your back is up against the back of the chair. If the arch in the chair is excessive then ask if there are any alternative chairs that could work better.
Issue 2: You are not getting up out of your chair frequently enough. You should be getting up out of your chair and walking around a little at least once an hour, not doing so can lead to stiffness in the hips and potential adaptive shortening of the hip flexor muscles- both of which can lead to a stiff and achey lower back.
7 Top tips to avoid back aches from desk working
1. Check your work station set up!
Ensure you have a good set up at your workstation so you can be comfortable and well placed for your back. Check out our Desk Ergonomics section of our Working from Home page to see how you should be set up. Or ask your Line Manager about referring you for a Work station assessment with Occupational Health.
2. Avoid leaning and crossing your legs
If you have a tendency to lean to one side in your chair, or you cross one leg over the other- try to cut this out. Both of these habits throw your hips out of line which, in turn, add a sidewards curve to your spine that can lead to pain in the back and potentially injury.
3. Try hip mobility exercises
Being in a sitting position for long periods of time can lead to stiffness in the hips that throws the whole body out of whack, try these hip mobility exercises to help loosen those hips and reduce aches and pains.
4. Raise those screens
If you are hybrid working and working from a laptop, make sure you have a stand and seperate keyboard and mouse so that you aren’t hunching over that upper back in order to see the screen better. The key is to line up the top of the screen with your eyeline when sat up properly.
5. Invest in a good chair
If you have an uncomfy chair at work or are working from a dinning room chair at home then it is definitely worth putting some pennies aside to invest in a good office chair with adjustable height and lumbar support. You may have something in place at work where they will pay for a new chair in the office or contribute towards home office furniture.
6. Try some upper body exercises
The best way to combat the desk-induced hunched back is to get moving! Try these upper back exercises to help strengthen the upper back while also stretching out the chest and mobilising the upper spine to help defeat the aches!
7. Get up!
You should be getting out of your seat and having a little walk at least once an hour, this will help to loosen your hips slightly and help reduce the risk of a stiff lower back.
