The Physical Effects of Working at a Computer

Do you sit at a computer all day feeling the strain on your neck, back and shoulders? While it takes constant concentration and muscle strength, it is much better for your body to sit fully upright and erect. Your back should be straight, your shoulders should be rolled out and level with each other and your neck should be straight from the crown of your head (the highest point), down your back. Keeping your spine straight can work wonders for those sore achy muscles. We have poor posture for a reason. It is just too demanding to hold our bodies up all day. It feels much better, at the time, to slouch. Regular exercise of your core muscles (the muscles surrounding and protecting your torso and neck) can help making sitting properly a whole lot less strenuous. Toning those muscles will give you the strength you need to sit in a proper position for your body and therefore eliminating your neck, back and shoulder pain.

Computer Work can be a Pain in the Neck

We all crane our necks somehow while working on the computer. We lean forward to read better, we lean back to read better, we look up or down depending upon where our screen is located. It really takes a toll on our neck muscles. We don’t take the time needed to stretch properly during the day because of how busy we are. When your neck is stretched that way for a long period of time, your muscles accommodate the new position and begin to grow in places they don’t need to grow. Then the places where those muscles used to be don’t have the support they need.

Do you feel like you have a Monkey on your Back?

Almost nobody sits at a computer all day with good posture. Your body gets tired and you begin to slouch; even if you don’t realize it. As with your neck pain, your back concentrates its muscle growth wherever the extra strength is needed to support your bad posture. The point of the back muscles is to hold you upright and protect your spine from injury and the long term damaging effects of sitting incorrectly. When we are not sitting with good posture, our back muscles must compensate for the strain to other parts of our backs. This causes the unprotected parts of your spine to become sore.

Carrying the Weight of the World on your Shoulders

The position we naturally want to bring our shoulders into is a slightly forward, tucked in position. This causes shoulder pain, neck pain, and back pain. We fold our shoulders in on ourselves and basically crumple up. Our bodies sitting hunched over like this causes long term damage to our muscles and skeleton. The pain we’re in can be fixed by rolling our shoulders back and down. Don’t lean forward to type, scoot your chair in instead.

Straining to See the Bright Side

Most people’s eyes are bothering them by the end of the day if they work at a computer. It is strenuous to have to concentrate on a backlit screen for hours on end. Not only is the brightness of the screen affecting your eyes, but being too close or too far away will bother them too. They have to strain focus on the things you’re reading and you’re using them all day long. As with any other muscle, if you use it too long, it gets tired. Give your eyes a break once in awhile.

Common problems that coincide with working on a computer are neck aches, back problems, shoulder pain, and eye strain. Regular exercise of your core muscles can help a tremendous amount with all the pain. Add in a dose of resting your eyes multiple times per day and you’re body will feel as good as new. Not everyone has a choice of whether they work on a computer or not, but they do have the choice of whether or not they’re in pain or discomfort while doing it.

Your lower back is the most affected area, when you sit at a PC for hours. If you are suffering from back pain, it is important to visit a physiotherapist for lower back pain treatment. Visit this website to find out more.