Jammed neck and sore back? Find out why and act!

Hey everyone!! Smart Break here to drop a little knowledge on ya!!

The most common symptoms for people who have sit-down jobs are various back and neck-shoulder pains.

For the most part there are no clinical diagnosis to be made of the pain. Usually it is a so called functional ailment caused by overly strained tissues in the pain area.

The strain creates an imbalance in the muscles as some muscles get weaker whereas the other muscles tighten too much. This leads to an adjustment of movements in the pain area which on the other hand increases the muscular imbalance. And we have ourselves a painful spiral!

The muscular imbalance is most often due to the working position that a person doing static sit-down work has; shoulders pushed forward, back rounded and head pushed forward. On top of that, sitting in an office chair means bending the hip in a deep angle for hours straight. The muscles of the front get strained and the muscles at the back get elongated and weakened. This imbalance can occur anywhere in the front-back axel, around both sides of the spine and/or around any joints.

The muscular imbalance can develop in the superficial and deep muscles that help support the spine. This kind of problem can usually be found in people who suffer from long term lower back and neck problems.

Massage and pain medication can help to ease the symptoms, but they will not resolve the functional problems. Therefore the help is temporary and short term.

For long term help find a professional physiotherapist who can determine the root to the problem. Usually the problem can be solved with some simple adjustments when the real cause has been determined.

It may require some time and determination to fix the problem so the best solution is to avoid getting a muscular imbalance in the first place. This can be done by taking enough breaks during the days and by doing countermoves to sitting (i.e. ME 😁).

Small things add up to big results when you choose Smart Break!