Sheehan Chiropractic, serving Medford, Ashland, and Southern Oregon

Looking back over twenty plus years as a chiropractic in Oregon, I realize that a heck of a lot of my time with patients has been spent teaching about proper posture when at a desk. Especially when it’s what we do all..day..long!

Note the attached diagram which demonstrates the many important elements to ideal sitting posture. All of them have proven vital for one patient or another over thee years, and none should be overlooked.

Many times I’ve tried to help someone with chronic neck or arm pain, numbness or spasms, only to fail initially until I (or they) realize that I had overlooked the way they were sitting at work. On correcting that piece, they often come beck in after a week or two and tell me how much less pain they’re in and how much better they feel. They often have also given the handout to a few others in their office, who end up being very appreciative also.

Many times the problem is that the furniture is used not just by the patient, but by a variety of other employees as well. The desk and chair aren’t custom-fitted for the patient’s body, nor for anyone’s, so all have to acomodate to it.

Sometimes bosses are financially able to purchase furniture that’s right for an employee (all the while hoping all the other employees don’t hear about it and want their own custom-fitted furniture) . That’s ideal, but some modifications to present desks and chairs can sometimes make all the difference in the world: A foam wedge cushion on the seat often helps immensely with maintaining one’s low back curve, and subsequently keeping the rest of one’s back straight and unslouched, (Think about how straight your back stays when you kneel on one of those Scandinavian chairs), by keeping one’s knees lower than their hips.

Adding a keyboard drawer under the desktop often makes a huge difference for people who’s keyboards are resting on the desktop and are too high, causing the shoulders to shrug up and cramp, causing sharp, burning pain often within a few minutes.Raising the monitor so the top of the visual portion of the screen is at eye-level sometimes makes a big difference for people who are looking down at the screen too much, causing them to slouch, which causes neck pain, headaches, and decreases breathing by compressing the chest. This can cause decreased oxygenation to the body and brain, so you get sleepy and “dumb”. You’ll stay awake a lot better if your able to breathe more effectively!

Do you still hold your phone cradled against your shoulder while you type or write, or at home – while you make dinner or do the dishes? This is often a big cause of neck and shoulder pain for many people. You may want to try a headset, or at least a cradle that attaches to the back of the phone, if it’s not a cell phone at least. They take up some of the slack between your shoulder and your head, so you don’t have to bring your head over so far ( or shrug your shoulder up so far!)

Many of us spend hours at home on the computer, playing poker or surfing ( you know who you are!), so these desks are just as important to straighten out as our work desks!

I also recommend to all my patients with neck and shoulder issues that they stretch at their desk every half hour to an hour, for a minute or so, to release all the tension that inevitably build in your neck and shoulders whiLe at the computer or desk, even when you’re doing it all the right way. A practical way to implement this is to get a portable alarm and set it to go off every 30 minute s to an hour, and place it across the room if you can, without driving your coworkers crazy (invite them to stretch then too), so that when it goes off every half hour you have to stop what you’re doing and get up to go reset it, thus breaking your attention from your work. Otherwise if you have it sitting right next to you on your desk, if you’re in the middle of something you’ll just smack it off and ignore it !

Give me a call if you have any questions about how to modify your workplace (or home) desk setup. I’d love to help!

Cheers,

Matt