We’ve all had aches and pains from sitting at our laptops for a long period of time. You know the scenario: you’re working on a project that’s due tomorrow. You’re concentrated and making huge progress. The next thing you know, you’ve been sitting in the exact same position for a couple of hours. As you start moving, you discover that your neck is tight and painful, which could be associated with a mild headache. Your neck pain might have been a result of one of the five most common causes.
1- Neck Pain triggered by Postural Strain
One of the most significant factors in minimizing neck pain when working at a computer is maintaining appropriate posture. Since many workers have no choice but to sit at their desktops, prolonged sitting can result in major discomfort in the neck and shoulder muscles. The muscles surrounding your spine and shoulder girdle become shortened, weaker, and more painful as you stay in the same position. To compensate for the weakness in the primary stabilizing muscles, the surrounding muscles begin to compensate. As a result, you might start experiencing serious pain and muscle tension, mainly in the upper body.
2- Impaired Posture
Try to limit your time Sitting to 0 minutes, then take breaks to move or stretch. When you sit, make sure you have a chair that can support your body well.
PAY ATTENTION!!!
Do not to slouch your lower back where it should be touching the back of the chair by a pillow you place it behind or by the curve of the chair while bending the hip and your knees around 90 degrees
Office setup for Neck Comfort
Your office must be adjusted in a way that allows you to work with your elbows on your side bent 90 degrees and supported. your laptop, PC should be on your eye level and around 20 inches or 50 cm from your eyes.
3- Stress That Causes Neck Pain
When you are stresses your shoulders get elevated due to the autonomic nervous system activation where your muscles will be more activated putting more tension on them leading to neck pain.
How to Relief Stress?
The best way is to learn strategies through awareness to deal with it through simple steps as putting realistic project deadlines. Plus breaking your projects into small steps that help you work on it.
Lie back on your couch at the end of the day in a dark room with a ball placed under your head muscles while focusing on grounding things around you like listening to a calm music, and breathing slowly and deeply 5 to 10 minutes.
A Quick Recap
Neck pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal conditions after prolonged computer work. This is usually caused by a combination of postural impairments, desk placement, monitor placement, sitting habits, and stress. The key to help neck pain is finding out which of these factors contribute to your symptoms. The action plan should ensure that the equipment is properly set up and adjust the workflow if necessary to prevent further issues.
