Another national lockdown has once again changed our daily routines. Most of us are juggling working from home with family commitments, and the weather makes that daily walk much less appealing.
A study commissioned by the brand Nurofen in July 2020, found that over a third of 2000 survey respondents reported increased pain since the March lockdown. Here’s the breakdown of where people were most affected:
36% said they had increased back pain
34% cited more headaches
27% said they had joint pain
26% reported neck pain
24% said they had general muscle pain
A quarter of survey respondents said this increased pain stemmed from their work from home set-up, while 50% said the stress was a key factor.
We’ve seen it in the clinic, too. What’s struck me most when speaking to patients is how many have fallen significantly short of the recommended 10,000 daily steps. Some have dropped by 80% when working from home.
It’s understandable: gone are the days of walking to the bus stop or train station and quickly racking up the steps on your Fitbit by lunchtime.
What working from home is doing to your body
Working from home involves a significant reduction in movement. But in these blog posts, we continually stress the importance of movement. Why? Because when a muscle spends a prolonged period in a short position, the muscle fibres start to create further links to hold the muscle in this new shortened position.
The specialist nerves in the muscles, known as spindles, also shorten. This makes it difficult to stretch the muscle fibres back to their original length, as the spindles can resist it. Furthermore, the tissue surrounding the muscle fibres will also shorten to offer more support to the muscle fibres. As this tissue becomes too short and tight, it becomes painful.
We promote activity and movement so much because we want to help you avoid this scenario. Walking to work, moving around the office for meetings and breaks, popping out for lunch and a gym class in the evening: it all help us move in and out of these undesirable positions. Sadly, this is much more difficult to achieve now (especially if we’re also homeschooling).
All this increases the chances of adaptive shortening of muscles and changes the way we move overall. For some people, this has resulted in significant pain. For others, it may just be a niggling pain or constant ache.
Either way, there are some steps you can take to help your body adjust and avoid serious injury. In this post, I’ll take you through some of the main areas of your body that may be affected by this drastic change in daily routine.
Why does this hurt?
Shoulder and neck pain
Shoulder and neck pain is common among people whose jobs are mostly computer-based. This is partly due to the posture we naturally assume when seated for long periods staring at a screen.
In an office, this time spent seated at the computer is usually broken up with general movement around the office. Not all of us were prepared to work from home in these current circumstances either. Plenty of people have put up with makeshift work stations at countertops, dining tables or, in the worst cases, on the couch.
You may be feeling shoulder or neck pain after so long working at home because our trapezius and erector spinal muscles will shorten as we work at a computer. Usually, our shoulders climb closer to our ears as our heads move closer and closer to the screen (sometimes without us even realising).
When the trapezius and erector spinal muscles shorten, they pull the small joints in our spine closer together. This limits our movement and prevents the muscles from reaching their healthy lengths. Ultimately this leads to compression and inflammation of the spinal joints themselves.
Hip pain and tightness
When we sit, the muscles around our hips shorten. But these muscles play an essential role in stabilising the spine. They can adapt to a seated position, shortening too much. In this case, they can pull the spine into an increased inward curve of the spine (lordosis) upon standing.
This increased curvature will eventually cause lower back pain due to the shortening of muscles and similar compression and inflammation of the joins as explained above.
Lower back pain
Sometimes the lower back pain can be related to hip pain and that prolonged period of sitting. But sitting can also encourage the pelvis to tip into an excessive posterior tilt. Ultimately, this will put extra strain on the lower back muscles as they try to maintain spinal stability. It will also cause more compression in the lumbar spine.
How to prevent muscle pain while working from home
It doesn’t matter how good your posture is, sitting still for long periods damages your body.
Our advice remains the same across the board for each area of your body: movement is the cure.
It is undoubtedly much harder to do this at the moment, especially when you’re juggling homeschooling and work. But if you can break up your day with regular movement breaks, your body will thank you for it.
Try splitting up your household chores, so you’re moving your body in different ways. Although gyms are closed, try to maintain your regular exercise routine at home. And, as much as we’re probably all sick of the same walk, make the most of time outside.
When it comes to your workspace, avoid the couch or bed. Our muscles will strain more, trying to keep us in a seated and stable position when we’re on a soft surface.
If you’re using a laptop, use a laptop stand or pop your computer up on some books to get it to eye level and reduce the strain on your neck. Position your keyboard so your shoulders are not too elevated or too low as this could cause spinal curvature.
If you can alternate between seated and standing positions for working, this will also be beneficial. Try taking phone calls while walking or moving around the house, or join your Zoom meeting while standing rather than sitting.
Any regular movement you can incorporate into your routine, no matter how small, will help.