I like yoga and there are plenty of YouTube instructions on this topic. But I miss the scientific take on the problem, what kind of exercise really works? How do you as office workers deal with reducing this type of problems?
Reducing shouldn’t be the goal. I don’t think there’s any reason office workers in the richer parts of the world should have neck or back pain.
Get a decent chair and desk setup, and regularly get out of that chair (in my completely unfounded opinion, a bad chair that you frequently get out of is better than a good one hat you sit in for hours at an end)
And get some exercise outside working hours (if you don’t really have ‘outside working hours’, that’s the first thing to fix)
Pilates worked for me. Reformer pilates, where you lie on this bed with pulleys and do various different exercises. 1hr a week for two years and I have no issue with my bulging disc injury.
YMMV of course, and most other suggestions here are also worth trying.
Most importantly, if you try something stick to it for 6-12 weeks before changing up. That's enough time for yoga/weights/pilates/whatevs to make a meaningful impact.
I just had my first physical therapy session for frequent pins and needles on my right hand & arm today morning, frequency increased significantly in the last four weeks.
All doctors I've seen say I've tight muscles and have very few moments in months with no headaches and/or pain in my extremities. Tests did not show any diseases like lupus and doctors think it is a combination of sinus issues (headaches) and early onset of arthritis, so I have learned to live with the pain and consider it normal.
But today after PT evaluation, they think I've cervical radiculopathy and believe most of the issues stem from pinched nerves and left untreated could result in loss of strength.
So it maybe a good idea to go see a doctor if you have frequent neck/back pain.
Edit: forgot to add how this relates to a question on neck pain - the pinched nerve is in my neck that was causing neck and shoulder pain and possibly the cause of frequent and long pins and needles on my arms & hands.
Lots of comments about random pains from what I'm going to assume are relatively younger folks. I was diagnosed with ulnar neuropathy before 30 where my pinky and ring finger went numb. It was caused by my sitting and even laying position when using MacBook air where my wrist and arm would rest against the edge of the MacBook and desk. I switched to a standing desk which elevated my arm so it wasn't always pressed or pinched against the edge of something and due to a combo of massage and acupuncture, resolved my neuropathy without surgery (which btw was told to me was the only fix by multiple modern doctors/specialists)
If you move to a standing setup, be sure to buy a standing pad with ridges. My feet were killing me initially but that's cus they weren't used to being stood on and the ridges force you not to lock your hip.
I was 29m, 5'8" 215 pounds in 2018 when this all hit me. By 2020 I was as low as 165 and could run 5 miles at mid 7 min pace. I changed my life around and felt great. Covid sucked and I'm at 195 today but back on a path to the 170s.
Haven't had ulnar neuropathy since and at my company, others who have reported issues, we moved to standing setups and those issues have also resolved themselves.
Backpain appeared along with my first kid where you contort your body when sleeping to make sure they are sleeping well. Went to chiropractor to reset, switched to the firmest foam mattress, and lift weights to strengthen back muscles.
Basically is a combination of bad posture + overcompensating the lack of strength/flexibility of some muscles. For checking specific exercises, Athlean-X usually gives good explanations while proposing specific exercises https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWmGArQBtFI
I find that general light exercise helps. Also changing to a split keyboard has really helped my posture (moving the two halves of the keyboard apart stops me hunching over the keyboard).
Also look at what you're doing with you legs. If you're crossing them then you'll be affecting the position of you hips, which in turn affects your back.
I've been dealing with sciatic nerve issues for the last 2-3 years. Currently I'm in my 17th year of being in IT (sitting 10 hours a day).
I had to go to a physiotherapist to heal my sciatic nerves when they blew up for the first time. It was so bad, I needed injections at the hospital just to not be in pain and took rather strong pain killers for a week.
A combination of the following has drastically changed my back health in the last 2 years.
* Basic weight lifting/strength training 2x per week focusing on shoulders/back/chest. Just 20-30 minutes. Nothing extreme.
* Switching from sitting in a chair, sitting on a yoga ball, laying on a yoga mat on the floor, and standing desk every hour. According to my physiotherapist, any one position for long periods of time is bad and present their own issues; the key is not staying in one position for more than 1-2 hours at a time.
(1) See a doctor. General-purpose advice isn't meaningful here.
(2) Pain can be from something as simple as underusing a region of muscles. Once you know your specific problems it's often really easy to treat and prevent.
(3) Fixing that sooner rather than later is probably a good idea. You heal faster when you're younger, and chronic pain can easily become a mental pattern long after the physical trigger has healed (and AFAICT psychological therapies for that sort of pain are still in their infancy).
(4) Muscles and bones benefit from impact, even something as mild as walking 10-60min daily. If you're physically atypical in any sense then still see a doctor to make a plan first, but adding a little of any sort of exercise will probably help mitigate any issues.
(5) Reiterating, if you're currently in pain, see a professional.
"See a doctor" is not a silver bullet. I have pretty severe chronic upper back pain that I have repeatedly brought to my doctor's attention at Stanford Med. I've only ever gotten "I dunno, maybe see a PT" as a response. No imaging referrals, no diagnosis, just a tacit admission that my issue is hard to diagnose or treat, and therefore uninteresting.
I've gone to a series of physical therapists. They all offered me extremely generic regimens of stretches and exercises that had little impact on my pain. None of them suggested any particular diagnosis or escalation options. Just... it's not working? Well, how about you pay for a few more sessions?
Edit: I have long ago bought all the desk jockey ergonomic accessories -- a standing desk, a split keyboard, a floor mat, a balance board, an ergo mouse, long walks twice a day. They made no difference.
I agree it's not a silver bullet, and I probably should have made that more clear. The point I was trying to make is that they're likely to get a lot of advice in this thread, and knowing nothing else about them other than that they have back pain and a standard desk job it's more likely that a doctor will be able to help than that any recommendation here will make a difference.
To your issue, back pain can be really complicated. Before I found a doctor that helped I found swimming in cold water made a huge difference where nothing else did (lucky to live near the ocean). If your typical doctor doesn't have a clue because something atypical is going on then it can be time consuming and expensive to find somebody who can actually help though. I don't have any actionable advice for atypical issues :/
No worries, and thanks for your sympathy! Just wanted to point out that a lot of the time in situations like these, there's really no good advice to give, even if you really feel like giving some advice.
I have seen a physical therapist as well, but with a very generic answer as a result. Hence I am asking here for more ideas on how to do that “just do som regular workout” as I am supposed to.
Postural training with a specialized doctor (ie a physiotherapist, don't go to personal trainers or anyone else without a medical degree in the field) then repeating the exercises by myself reduced my back pains and the painkiller consumption to zero. Now I take them occasionally only for other problems mostly related to age, weight, other health related issues (Haglund), and a motorcycle accident I had in 2020.
In my situation, I learned to stretch my spine without thinking when walking, riding the motorcycle, or even sitting. Keeping the correct posture is so important, and often overlooked, but at least in my case was all i had to do to change everything. YMMV of course.
Work by Dr Stuart McGill PhD is a good scientific take on the issue as well as offering super practical level advice to avoid pain and injury, simple tests to see exactly what is causing your pain, and excercises to build up specific muscles.
- A good full body workout routine with some weights to build core strength. I avoid really heavy weights since that can increase my odds of having bad form to compensate and then hurting myself. Just sticking to light and medium weights has been very beneficial.
- Use a standup desk for part of the day.
- Look up some physical therapy moves for the specific part of your back which hurts and do them a few times a week when you wake up or go to bed. My pain is usually in my mid back, and I discovered a couple moves which have helped reduce the occurrences of spasms.
If the pain is severe, you will not be able to exercise. Only painkillers will help)
If the pain is intermittent. You may have a muscle spasm. Slow warm-up exercises may help. For example, the "cat-dog" exercise. Do 10-15 repetitions, then put ice on it for 5 seconds. This will allow the blood to circulate. To get rid of back or neck pain, you need the blood to circulate in the problem area and thus nourish the spinal column.
Also problems are often caused by lack of mobility. You become bony. You have to at least do some warming up.
What I have heard from several people is that pushups work like magic. For me, a standing desk and a good chair with neck support did helped me get rid of back pain right as it was starting.
I have lordosis, and admittedly, I should be seeing a PT because the curve is getting worse. But when I'm in pain, I go for an intense bicycle ride. Something about the blood flow loosening everything up and the endorphins it releases. For hours after my body will naturally want to do those stretches that just feel so good. It will last for a handful of days and then my back and body starts to ache again and it reminds me to go again.
In addition to working out and generally improving my health, I had an ergonomic review done of my workspace. The biggest win was moving to a split keyboard, since I was hunching up my shoulders with a "normal" keyboard.
It also helped to raise up my monitors to a consistent height that removed the need to tilt my head down, but the split keyboard completely solved some neck and shoulder pain issues.
1) Attempt exercises gleaned from the internet; 2) Fail. Back pain unchanged or worse; 3) Go to a real M.D. doctor; 4) Doctor orders X-rays of back; 5) Obtain specific diagnoses, and referral to Physical Therapist; 6) Physical Therapist reviews chart, assigns specific exercises for problem; 7) Back pain gets better.
Sometimes, there's no substitute for finding out what is actually going on.
Stretching and light calisthenics when I wake up. No need to be fancy or intense, just touch your toes, butterfly, cross arm stretch, along with a set of pushups and squats. It also helps to pay attention to your posture, and adjust chairs/monitors to prevent slouching (maybe visit the optomotrist or increase font if you're leaning a lot).
I have empirically observed that talking with friends about problems, meditation, and other things that help me carry less stress in my body significantly reduces or eliminates my back and neck pain. My hypothesis is that my back and neck muscles have nervous tissue in them and the level of muscle tension is influenced by the state of my brain.
1-getting a standing desk to stop sitting for 8 hours straight
2-doing excercises that both strengthen and stretch muscles in your core (back and front) and your thighs (e.g squats, planks, to Romanian deadlifts, etc)
Anyone have a desk chair with good neck support? I just finished getting rid of a $1500 Steelcase Gesture with OEM neck rest because it was doing jack-diddly-squat for my head and neck.
I used to have all kinds of back and neck pain, but 48 I started boxing and savate training and all of that pain went away. It's the best thing I've ever done for my health.
Weightlifting. And avoid prolonged inactivity in the office: Get up every 10-20 minutes or so just to stand up and move around a little and take pressure off the eyes and hands.
Get a decent chair and desk setup, and regularly get out of that chair (in my completely unfounded opinion, a bad chair that you frequently get out of is better than a good one hat you sit in for hours at an end)
And get some exercise outside working hours (if you don’t really have ‘outside working hours’, that’s the first thing to fix)