According to Statistics Canada, just over 20% of adults met the Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines of 2013.
Original source here
Shocking, right?
Well it has A LOT to do with what you do for a living.
There is a strong correlation between our fitness levels, our occupations, and the pain that we feel as a result of the former two.
Chronic pain has been on the rise in the last century. Office work, and thus, sedentary work had only come into view about 50 years ago. As you’re reading this, you’re probably doing at least one of the following:
- Craning your neck so that you can see the words on the screen better
- Sitting down (uncomfortably or not)
- Between tasks
- Using technology (because why waste the time to print this out when it has links to more information and a video?)
Ha! I know I got at least one of those right.
Especially because most of you look like this when you’re reading something on your phone:
Original source here
And you wonder why you have neck pain?!
It’s just so obvious now that you see it right?
Get your spine in a straight line Hillary!
Here’s an Anatomy Poem I made up that you should remember forever:
When your neck is not in line
with the rest of your spine
it is not fine.
We’ve discussed this in previous articles:
Your spine should be one line,
Not jagged,
No dent in a certain place,
No curves,
Just one line.
On a subconscious level, office work tends to steer you in the wrong direction. You are more focused on your mental state rather than your physical state, leading you to become more rigid and tense. In turn, your productivity goes down. This has a lot to do with the way your spine is aligned. Because it has direct access to your brain, it has a big impact on the way you think.
Try to do some critical thinking curled up in a ball after a half hour.
Pretty difficult.
Original source here
Many articles have been published on how to combat neck pain:
- At Home!
- Naturally!
- Yourself!
As great as that sounds, every person experiences pain differently and for different reasons.
Person A and Person B might both be working in the same office looking at their computer screen in the same strained way but Person A might not have kids that jump up on them after work.
Person A and Person B may be reading the same article entitled “The Ultimate Guide to Getting Rid of Your Neck Pain Forever” but aren’t getting anything out of it because:
They’ve already tried everything listed like
- Pilates
- Massage
- Chiropractor
It’s not specific to their pain (they may have had a childhood injury that impedes them from doing exercises like the ones listed in the ‘ultimate guide’)
The activity is too general
- Breathing exercises
- Keeping a healthy weight
- Stretching
Okay, but HOW?
The brutal truth is this: there is NO quick fix. If you believe that, I 100% know that your pain has come back after trying this “quick fix”.
Want to Know the Solution? (You Won’t Like It)
You’re going to have to work hard to get rid of the pain by changing your habits.
Analyze what you do throughout the day and create a checklist that includes every activity in which you have poor posture.
Mine looks like this:
There’s one thing I left out and that’s exercising. If I were to put a 100 lb. on my back and go down in a squat, how likely do you think it is that I’d injure myself squatting with the same posture I have working at my desk?
It’s much easier to keep correct posture when you are exercising rather than doing any other activity. That’s because you are conscious of what you are doing with your body.
For example, think about when you are doing push ups.
Internally, you ask questions like:
- Are my hands where they should be? Should I move them up or further out?
- Is my torso too high up?
- Am I going all the way down to the floor?
- Am I supposed to be feeling pain in the areas I’m feeling?
- Is this completely wrong?
Because you notice these inaccuracies, you change them right away.
Imagine if you were to do the same with an activity on which you spend 8 hours+?
Immediately you will notice a boost in:
- Awareness in yourself and of your surroundings
- Confidence
- Productivity
- Mood
- ENERGY!
We’ll teach you exactly how to feel this way in our short 5 min. video.
You don’t even have to get out of your seat.
Stay right there. Sit straight. And hit play.
This video covers:
- What your posture looks like when you’re working
- How to improve it, leading to an increase in productivity, energy, and efficiency
- Which areas of the body you should target to decrease pain in the neck
The best part is that you can do what we showed anywhere! You don’t even have to be seated if you’re tired of sitting.
If that’s not reason enough for you to start taking care of your posture, give yourself 3 minutes to sit down today (without slouching of course) and make your own checklist. Include all the activities in which you exhibit poor posture.
It’s not like you’re slacking off. This will help both you and your boss in the long run 🙂
You will be surprised how much of a favour it will be rather than a chore.
Too shy? No problem.
Here’s the link to the video one last time: