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Posture pain can be a big distraction. If you have read our article on good posture at work you will have a good idea of what changes occur in our bodies and what can cause pain whilst seated at a desk. Here are some self help tips to help with postural pain:

1. Take regular Breaks – get up and move around, take a walk to the water machine. Motion is lotion. Movement can help:
   • Break down the build-up of collagen fibers (which add to restriction).
   • Improve tissue fluid dynamics nourishing muscles and joints.
   • Stimulate muscles helping the muscles maintain strength and minimising muscle atrophy.
   • Clear the mind, easing stress and helping you focus.

 

2. Hydrate – good hydration helps our bodies in many ways; aiding digestion, improving tissue fluid dynamics, and can even have an effect on headaches (depending on type). Tips for staying hydrated:
   • Water is best. Not all drinks are equal when it comes to hydration. Tea, Coffee, and sugary drinks can actually set back your hydration.

 

3. Exercise at work – if you don’t currently exercise at lunch, or even take a lunch break, START. You don’t need to train for a marathon. This will help improve muscle and joint condition, and ease stress. Try:
   • A walk around the block followed by some stretching.
   • Getting a group together and have a group stretching session, or if you want a giggle try a lunch time hula-hoop session.
   • Download a health app, count daily steps and work in some little exercises.

 

4. Get a massage – Massage helps ease stress, improve tissue dynamics, and feels pretty good too. Try speaking to HR or Personnel see if they can arrange a desk massage.

 

5. No Slouching – Whilst an ergonomic work station will help, we still need to focus on how well we hold our posture. If you know you slouch:
   • Get an app or screen saver that will regularly remind you to adjust your seating posture.
   • Ask a colleague to point out every time they catch you slouching, if this seems like a lot to ask start a slouch jar. Put in some money each time your caught slouching at the end of the week you can use it as a prize for the one who got caught the least or use it to treat yourselves to lunch.

 

6. Visit your Osteopath – if you are struggling with postural pain. A visit to an Osteopath could be just what you need to get your joints and muscles working smoothly again. Your Osteopath will examine your posture and joint range of motion, give you good advice, and treat your problem.

If you are interested in Ergonomics and would like to find detailed information on ergonomic advice please visit ergonomics.org for great resources related to ergonomics and Alexander Technique.

Let’s face it, we’re not designed to spend every hour of the day locked indoors, staring at a screen, and desperately tapping away at the keyboard trying to get our work done! Prolonged sitting is no good for us, and sitting with poor posture can further exaggerate things.

Some of us may break up the day by taking a walk or playing a game of five a side at lunch. Others may cycle to and from work or stop by the gym on the way home. These really help keep us in good shape, but what does this prolonged sitting do to our bodies?

Posture Effects on Low Back and Pelvis

Whilst in a typical seated position:

• Knees are bent at around 90° – This places our hamstrings in a shortened position.
• Hips our flexed at around 90° – bringing our hip flexors to a shortened position.
• Pelvis is tilted backwards – allowing us to relax our core muscles, in particular our abdominal muscles.

Eventually our bodies can adapt to this prolonged sitting resulting in shortened hip flexors (psoas muscle), shortened or tight hamstrings, tight low back muscles, weak abdominal muscles, and weak glutes. Our bodies adapt to this and our pelvis can become tilted forwards, increasing our low back lordotic curve (see pic) .

This drastically effects:

• Core Strength
• Flexibility
• Joint loading and pain
• and can predispose you to injury

Posture Effects on Upper Back, Neck, and Shoulders

Whilst at a desk looking at a screen we tend to:

• Flex our upper back and roll our shoulder forward (slouching) – This can essentially stretch our upper back muscles and our trapezius muscle (spanning between our back, neck and out to our shoulders) and cause shortening of muscles of our chest (pec muscles).
• Extend our neck – to adapt to our upper back postural change. This can cause shortening of the muscles at the back of our neck and weakening of muscles at the front of our neck.
• Crane our heads forward to see the monitor – This can further amplify the effects of extending our neck and place extra loads on joints and muscles to be able to maintain this posture.

Similarly our bodies eventually adapt to this by increasing our mid back kyphotic curve (see pic). This can predispose us to; neck pain, shoulder pain, joint loading, and joint wear and tear.

Posture Effects of Inactivity

Periods of inactivity can also affect our joints and muscles on microscopic level. Ever heard the phrase ‘don’t use it, loose it’? This holds some truth for our muscles and joint range of motion.

Muscles, when not used or engaged can atrophy (waste away), this sounds terrible but really it’s our body’s way of maintaining efficiency and placing resources and nutrients where they’re currently needed. However this does mean if you’re spending prolonged time seated your muscles can change. For 3-5 days bedrest it takes 30 days to regain the muscle and strength lost due to atrophy.

Muscles and joints can also become restricted due to sustained inactivity. Every day our bodies are constantly laying down collagen fibres in an almost random pattern. This occurs; over joints, between muscles, between organs. The purpose of this is to create stability in areas not used much and to allow smooth movement in areas of higher mobility. This also helps maximise the bodies efficiency by creating stability where needed. These fibres get broken down by movement. By spending long periods of time in the same position we’re allowing the build-up of these fibres causing fascial restriction in joints and muscles. Gil Hedley explains this really nicely in a non-scientific way in his youtube video, take a look if you’re not too squeamish but be warned the video does show dissection and may not be to every ones taste. Gil Hedley Video

Postural Ergonomic Help

Try sitting with your hips flexed at 90⁰, knees at 90⁰ and feet flat on the floor. Have your screen at head height directly in front of you so you don’t have to turn your head to the side. Try to maintain a neutral posture where you are not stretching or straining, and no slouching. This will help minimise loading of joints and strain on muscles whilst sat at a desk.

Different seating can help by causing you to engage more muscles whilst seated, especially your core to maintain an upright position. Sit to stand desks will help by encouraging you not to spend too much time seated or standing. Also, by placing your body in an upright position you reduce effects of shortened hip flexors and hamstrings. However, if you are working standing, try not to lean or slouch.

Ergonomic help is great it allows us to make changes to our environment by adjusting factors extrinsic to our bodies. But we do need to take some responsibility for our own health. Think of these as intrinsic factors, factors specific to you and your body.

Intrinsic Factors include:

• Muscle condition – Muscle imbalances, or tight and knotted muscles affect the muscle tissue dynamics. This means strains and pain can be felt sooner as the muscle is not functioning efficiently.
• Joint Range of Motion – Restrictions in our joints can essentially cause us to over work other joints, as we have to compensate for the restriction. This can be a predisposing factor in aches and pains.
• Hydration – Many people don’t hydrate adequately or drink just tea or coffee. Less than optimum hydration means our muscles and joints are not hydrated on a cellular level, if our cells can’t thrive then our bodies can’t either.
• Sleep – There is strong scientific research highlighting the link between sleep deprivation and pain. This is because the majority of our healing takes place during our sleep.
• Stress – Stress plays a massive role in many conditions. It physically effects how pain is transmitted along nerves. It can have drastic effects on tissue dynamics, sleep, hydration, and even apatite (affecting the fuel for our bodies).

Please See our ‘6 self-help tips for desk postural pain‘

If your interested in ergonomics or Alexander technique visit ergonomics.org for a great resource of information.

If you are in pain, or just want some great tips on how you can improve your posture and advice specific to you. Call Pure Health Osteopath Clinic for an appointment. Our Osteopaths will examine your posture, movement and form a treatment plan specific to your needs. Helping you feel great and self manage. You can also visit our Osteopaths even if you are not in pain, prevention is better than cure. Call 01179 000 935 to book an appointment.

I read the in the news about the toddler Jaxon Taylor, this really caught me and hit home as my own son is of similar age. If you missed it, here’s a brief overview;
Jaxon Taylor a sixteen month old toddler in New South Wales, Australia. Fractured his upper two vertebrae C1 and C2 following a car crash causing his head to come away from his neck. Fortunately, after undergoing 6 hours of spinal surgery he is set to make a full recovery and due to go home any day. Take a look at the video on the BBC website, it’s so inspiring to see little Jaxon smiling even though he has to wear his ‘Halo’ holding his head and neck in place. Jaxon Taylor YouTube.
This highlighted to me how important it is that our children are as safe as they can be whilst we travel. I don’t know the details of the type of car collision or car seat used by Jaxon Taylor, that’s not relevant to this post. This post is not aimed to criticise what should or could have been done. This post is aimed at highlighting potential risks whilst traveling with a baby or toddler and information on minimising injury. Ultimately, all we can do is our best. Our thoughts go out to Jaxon Taylor and his family, and we wish him the speediest of recoveries.

A child’s head weighs up to 25% of the total body weight, that’s like an adult having a head that weighs 20Kg (the average adult head is 4.5 to 5Kg). Their bones are softer and cartilage like, meaning they don’t have the same protection adults have protecting their vital organs.

Head on collisions tend to place the highest risk of injury on both adults and children. Generally they tend to occur at higher speeds than other types of collisions. In a head on collision the moving vehicle is brought to a stop very quickly (sudden deceleration). This sudden deceleration of the vehicle causes the person to be forced forward into their seat belt or harness on a child seat. This is due to the persons own momentum. The head, as we know, is not restrained against this forward momentum and relies on the bones ligaments and muscles to resist the forward momentum. In adults this can causes injuries including whiplash associated disorders, bruising, internal bleeding, fractures and more. As mentioned, babies and toddlers have a proportionately greater head mass and their bones are soft. Essentially the same forces applied to a more delicate structure.

Chosing the Right Car Seat

To reduce the forces placed on our little ones we use car seats, it’s a legal requirement that all children under 12 or smaller than 135cm to be seated in a car seat. This ensures that they are in a seat that fits correctly and that they are using adequate seatbelts for their age/weight category. If you are ever in a situation where you don’t have a car seat, don’t drive. Even if it is only down the road, not only is it illegal, you are putting your child at greater risk than need be. Up to 1 in 3 car accidents happen within a mile of your home. Modern car seats are great, there are some really well made products on the market with different features to ease getting your child in and out of the car, or to facilitate the growth of your child.

Quite new to the market, and getting more popular, are rear facing group 1 car seats allowing you to keep your child in a rear position up to the age of 4 or 5 dependant on weight. The advantage of a rear facing car seat is that in a collision your child’s momentum is absorbed through the whole back and head rest. This means that the forces placed upon our child are spread across a larger area and their head is supported stopping it from being flung forward. In Sweden rear facing group 1 seats are the only seats available on the market, as a result serious injuries have reduced. Studies have showed rear facing seats to be up to 5 times safer than forward facing seats. These seats definitely offer ultimate protection and in an ideal world everyone would use one. Unfortunately a few things hold back use. They are quite large so may not fit in all small cars, cost varies but generally rear facing group one seats start at a higher price than their front facing alternatives, you can’t easily see your child whilst traveling (although this could be a distraction anyway).

Whatever seat you chose to use here are some tips to get the best out of it and be as safe as possible:

1. Harness/Belt – Five points are better than three. Five points allow more points of contact spreading the load during an accident, also there is less chance of your child coming out of a five point.
2. Installation – Make sure your seat is installed correctly. Check with the manufacturer, often they have information on compatibility with particular cars. Make sure you follow the manufactures guidelines on installation. A properly installed seat is better than a poorly installed one.
3. Child Fit – Make sure your child fits their seat. Use weight and height guidelines to help, age is a rough guideline and not all children are big enough for a group 1 seat at a year and some may need to step up sooner. Make sure the harness is on the right settings and is a good, but comfortable fit.
4. No Twists in the Harness – not only is this going to be uncomfortable for your child. Twists narrow the surface are of the belt causing greater pressure on an area if there were an accident. Also, nice wide belts spread the pressure better than narrow belts.
5. Second Hand – if using an old or used seat make sure; it is intact, all pieces are there, it hasn’t been in an accident, you have the manual and know how to fit it. It’s also important to consider the age of the seat as plastics can become brittle with age, compromising the safety of the seat.

Thank you for reading and I hope you found this post helpful. If you do experience an accident, be sure to seek medical advice for yourself and your little one, it’s always better to be safe. If you feel you or your little one would benefit from some treatment, please call. Are Osteopath Sophie Parker specialises in paediatric Osteopathy and will be more than willing to help or answer your questions.

Pure Health Osteopath Clinic 01179 000 935

Shin splints can be really frustrating. They can ruin an entire season of running if not kept in check. Also known as Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome (MTSS), can be described as pain bellow the knee along the inner part leg.  Shin splints occurs most commonly in runners, but can affect anyone doing high impact activities including dancers, and military personnel.

Here are 7 Tips to Help

1. Prevention, prevention, prevention!! –  The easiest way to avoid the irritations of shin splints is to make sure your doing everything to stop them occurring in the first place.
   • Train  Steady – Build your exercise program gradually, and allow good time to recover between sessions.
   • Lower the Impact – A cardio workout doesn’t have to be high impact to get the same fitness gains. Mix up your training with some low impact sessions (eg. cross-trainer, cycling, swimming).
   • Look After Your Feet – Good footwear is essential to the bimechanics of your lower limb, pelvis, and spine. Make sure your footwear is suitable for you, not causing over-pronation of the foot, and fits well. If need be, visit a specialist to have your gait and biomechanics assessed, and shoes or orthotics recommended based on the finding.
2. Take a Break –  If your shin splints have just occurred, then rest is advised.
   • Two Weeks Off – This might sound a lot, especially if you are training for an event. Your body needs time to recover, with out any impact to aggravate or worsen the condition. Try cycling, swimming or cross-training to keep your fitness up in the meantime.
   • Gradually Reintroduce the Impact – Picking up where you left off may set yourself up for a return in the symptoms. Instead; gradually build up the impact combining your training with low impact cardiovascular exercise.
3. Ice – Help alleviate the pain and inflammation by icing your shins (use an ice pack wrapped in a tea towel) . Ice for no more than 10 minutes every two to three hours for up to 48 hours.
4. Stretching – Stretch of your calf muscles and the muscles at the front of your shins. This will help ease muscle tension, improve range of motion and ultimately reduce the stress on the area.
5. Strengthen – Improve strength and endurance capability of your calf and shin muscles to help reduce the stress on your shins. This will help the muscles long term by giving them the strength to get through those longer runs.
6. Massage – Self massage through your calf and shin muscles to ease tension. Regularly get massage treatment to further help.
7. Manual Therapies (Osteopathy, Physiotherapy Chiropractic) – Speak to your manual therapist about shin splints. Let them assess; your posture, gait, and biomechanics to highlight and treat possible predisposing factors.

Shoulder and neck pain can be really frustrating, and can be uncomfortable even at rest.

So What is the Difference Between Shoulder and Neck Pain?

This really depends upon where the pain originates. Neck problems can often cause pain in the shoulder or arm. Shoulder pain, although usually more localised, can occur as a result of other structures. Interestingly, over 20 muscles are directly involved in shoulder movement and some of these originate from the back, neck or chest.

What Causes Neck or Shoulder Pain to Arise?

Direct trauma to the neck or shoulder can cause injuries, for example road traffic accidents or even lifting heavy weights at the gym. Depending on the severity of the injury, examination may be required. However, sometimes just sleeping awkwardly can cause irritation to a muscle or joint, causing muscle guarding and pain upon movement. Poor standing or seating posture can cause loading on joints, ligaments, and nerves causing irritation and pain.

Care needs to be taken with shoulder or neck pain to ensure that it is not referred pain as a result of an underlying pathology, for example, a heart attack or angina. We advise to seek medical advice if you’re experiencing shoulder or neck pain with; shortness of breath, squeezing or gripping sensation in the chest, cold sweats, or nausea.

How Can Osteopathy Help?

The key to treating any problem is to find the root cause. At Pure Health Osteopath Clinic we carry out a thorough assessment, and offer treatment and advice based on our findings. We take into consideration your life demands, health, and tailor our treatments to suit. Treatments typically involve massage techniques to ease tight and painful muscles, joint mobilisation to restore movement and improve restriction.

“Natural, Drug Free, Pain Relief”

For some tips to ease neck pain take a look at our post; 7 tips to ease your neck pain

If you have any concerns about your neck or shoulder pain, or would like to find out more, contact Pure Health Osteopath Clinic on 01179 000 935