Whether you’re working from home during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic or resuming work from the office, taking your work posture into consideration is imperative. In many cases, people get so consumed in their work that they fail to take note of poor workplace ergonomics.
If you’re prone to hunching over a desk for long durations, the delicate musculoskeletal structures in your neck and lower back will gradually begin to deteriorate. We’ve rounded up three ways this damage may occur. Continue reading.
The forward head posture is known to cause long-term damage. As you extend your head forward for long durations, your neck sustains added pressure. Over time, your neck muscles will shorten and become increasingly tight.
This damage manifests slowly. During the first few weeks, you may not notice anything. As the months go by, you’ll begin to notice an increase in neck stiffness and soreness. If you fail to correct your posture, the muscle imbalance may cause chronic neck pain and even result in a serious neck condition.
Trigger points are sensitive areas within your muscles. When they’re overworked and touched, people experience sharp pain.
If you’re prone to hunching over a desk all day, you’ll develop trigger point pain that makes it increasingly difficult for you to move your neck freely without experiencing pain. You may also experience migraines and other types of headaches.
These tender spots feel like knots or tiny marbles under the skin. If left unattended, the pain lingers and worsens.
As you sit with your neck in an upright position, your head is naturally and properly balanced on your cervical spine.
Hunching causes an imbalance, resulting in excessive pressure on your cervical spine. As the vertebrae continue to tilt forward for long durations, the cervical spine’s curvature is exacerbated, and the surrounding nerve roots are excessively stretched.
Additional stress on these delicate structures, including the facet joints and the cervical spine’s discs, increases the risk of spinal degeneration.
If your job requires you to hunch over a desk all day, there are things that you can do to undo the damage gradually. These include exercise, stretching, and diet.
If your pain persists, see your doctor, who will likely send you to an orthopedic specialist like the orthopedic surgeons at TOPS Surgical Specialty Hospital. As one of the leading facilities for neck conditions in North Houston, our doctors use innovative non-surgical and surgical methods to treat patients with neck pain and serious neck conditions.
Find out more about the orthopedic spine treatments, or, to schedule an appointment today, simply scroll down to the bottom of the page and select one of the doctors. Their treatments also include back surgery for a herniated disc and sciatica and lower back pain surgery.
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