As a human, work helps you gain a sense of pride and self-satisfaction by reaffirming that you can support yourself. With work, you earn money to cover bills and pay for activities in your leisure time. But what if this work affects your spine?
As per data from 2010 to 2020, Statistics reported 372,683 back injury cases involving days away from work. Most cases involved workers who were aged 25–54 (79%), male (64%), and white, non-Hispanic (70%).
The Impact of Poor Posture: A Slouch Away from Pain
As modern technology is growing and developing rapidly, 95% of their total work time is spent sitting, which has become the most common posture in today’s workplace. Many office jobs involve long periods of sitting, which puts pressure on the spine and leads to muscle strain and pain in your lower back. Extended periods of setting can lead to poor posture, especially if you’re slouching or hunching over a keyboard. Over time, poor posture can strain the muscles, ligaments, and discs in your spine, increasing your risk of back and neck pain.
Insufficient movement can also contribute to muscle stiffness and tension in your lower back. If you don’t use them, you lose them! By sitting all day, you’re not depending on your powerful lower body muscles to hold you up. This leads to muscle atrophy, which is the weakening of these muscles. Without strong leg and glute muscles to stabilize you, your body is at risk of injury.
LBP: The Hidden Danger
Not only does sitting for long periods give you pain, but several reports claim that in three-quarters of all workers in industrialized countries, Low Back Pain (LBP) has been identified as one of the most costly disorders among the worldwide working population.
Lifting heavy objects is one of the leading causes of workplace injuries. Overexertion and cumulative trauma were the biggest factors in these injuries. Bending, followed by twisting and turning, were the more commonly cited activities that caused back injuries. Strains and sprains from improper lifting or lifting loads that are too large or heavy are common hazards associated with manually moving materials.
Prolonged periods of standing have been linked with the onset of LBP symptoms in working populations, which were observed to have a higher incidence of LBP in people standing more than 4 hours every day. While there are many underlying reasons for back pain during prolonged standing, the precipitating cause is usually postural. When you stand for a long time, your pelvis is often pushed backwards, increasing the curve of your lower back (lumbar region). This puts increased pressure on the soft tissues surrounding the spine, causing your lower back muscles to tighten or even spasm, resulting in pain in the joints and nerves of your spine.
The Neck Pain Crisis: The Cost of Prolonged Computer Use
In the last decade, the global age-standardized prevalence and incidence rate of neck pain were 3551.1 and 806.6 per 100,000, respectively.
Prolonged computer use can have a detrimental effect on your physical health. While using a computer, we often lean and hunch over the keyboard, putting strain on our neck muscles. There are also other potential concerns relating to posture and eye strain. People working with arms above their heads typically report neck pain and stiffness (often associated with a cracking or grinding sound on movement), diffuse upper limb pain, which may radiate into the shoulder blade and frequent headaches or a ‘burning’ or numbness along the arm.
A common bad habit we assume while doing desk work or computer work can lead to serious pathology: pushing the head forward while working and in front of the supporting spine, placing greater compressive force on joints. This can also increase the curvature of the cervical spine and lead to shoulder pain and rotator cuff injury.
Work is not a one-day process, and its routine can lead to Strain injuries caused by overuse, force, or muscle stretching. Strain injuries relating to neck pain from using computers usually happen when the neck is constantly uncomfortable and is not stretched often. Over time, with repetitive strain injuries, you could contract neck pain even with minimal computer usage. While there are treatment options to deal with it, it is best advised to try and prevent it.
Beyond the Spine: Other Health Risks of Sedentary Work
Sitting and sedentary work styles can also raise your risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, obesity.
Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a clot that forms in your leg, often because you sit still for too long.
It could be that you’re often alone and engaged in a screen-based activity. If this disrupts your sleep, you can become even more anxious.
An active lifestyle may more likely cause osteoporosis (weakened bones) in older ones.
Some tips to overcome spine issues at the workplace:
Change working positions frequently so that working in one position is of a reasonably short duration.
Avoid extreme bending, stretching, and twisting.
Inculcate ergonomics at your workplace.
Give yourself suitable rest periods to relax.
Exercise regularly to improve muscular imbalance.
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