Many jobs and study routines require us to spend a large number of hours sitting down, which significantly affects our health and can cause back and neck pain. Back pain affects around 70-80% of the general population at some point in their lives. These problems are accentuated in times of a lot of work or exams, due to the increase in hours in front of the screen or sitting in front of a table. In fact, up to 40% of the cases that go to a physiotherapist with back pain have poor postural hygiene.
Back, cervical and lumbar pain is a major health problem with a great impact on society, in terms of loss of quality of life, and is included among the most frequent conditions in the Spanish population. The supervisor of the Physiotherapy Unit of the Denia Hospital, Adrián Ventero, explains, for example, “that neck pain arises from hours in front of a screen sitting badly and causes an anteriorization of the shoulders and a rectification of the surrounding area, increasing tension in the muscles.” The most common mistakes when sitting down are having your head forward, your shoulders slumped, your spine curved forward, and not supporting your lower back on the backrest.
To prevent these discomforts, which can end up becoming chronic, and also to treat them, it is important, as Physiotherapy specialists from the Ribera health group point out, do exercises and stretches that mobilize these parts of our body. In it video Accompanying this blog post, Irene, the group’s physiotherapist, explains which are the best stretches for some of the muscles involved in neck pain. She recommends doing them once or twice a day, for 30 seconds to a minute.
What is the correct posture to work and/or study?
- The feet always have to be on the ground and slightly apart from each other.
- The computer should be placed just in front, to avoid excessive twisting of the trunk, and in the horizontal plane of the head
- The load of the body weight must be balanced and avoid shoulder antepulsion (shoulders forward and slightly up), because it favors dorsal kyphosis.
- The knees must be at the same level or above the hips.
- If the feet do not reach the ground well, a footrest with adjustable inclination must be used.
- To work with the computer, the keyboard must be low, so as not to raise your shoulders and rest your forearms on the table. The elevation should not exceed 25 cm.
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