Office workers avoid neck shoulder pain

Almost every office worker used to have aches in the neck area. Neck pain in office workers is often diagnosed by a doctor as " functional " pain.

The pain may spread to the nape of the neck or spread to the back of the shoulder blades. The main reason is due to one or more muscle groups working too hard leading to muscle spasms and causing pain, or common in people who have to bow their heads often, turn their heads back and forth, bow their heads up and down many times. Occasionally, some people will " twitch their necks ", especially in an environment that is too cold: the head is bent to the side, very painful and difficult to turn back straight. The habit of shaking your neck when you have aches and pains can also cause minor injuries, tendon - muscle tears - neck ligaments, causing long pain.

Most cases of " muscle " pain go away after a few days. But the difficulty is that the employees still do those jobs, along with those movements, should be left repeatedly. In the long term, it can change to cervical spine degeneration, insertion of nerve root to numb the hand.

Avoid bad posture

Writing and viewing papers often has to bow to the front. It is possible to limit it by holding the papers you need to watch close to eye level to avoid neck strain, sometimes lifting your head for a while when you have to write a lot. Natural posture is slightly raised chin, the shaft is relatively straight through the ear - shoulder - hip.

Computer location is very important. Whether the screen is large or small, the top of the screen should be placed at eye level or slightly lower. The distance to the screen from 60-80 cm is suitable for most users. The keyboard should not be too low to fatigue the shoulder lift. Those who do not memorize the keyboard should arrange the keyboard near the screen to avoid having to bend the head up and down several times.

Exercise of neck shoulder muscle group

1. Start by massaging your hands and not using the neck muscles. You relax and tilt your head forward, inhale slowly to hold for a few seconds, straighten your head back and exhale. Continue with the rear, right, left directions. Note slightly tilting each movement for a more natural posture and not muscular (figure 1).

(Figure 1)

2. Hold your head straight, trying to bend forward while holding your hand against the forehead to prevent the head from moving. Do the same with the back, right, left. You only need to use a moderate force and hold for five seconds for each movement (Figure 2).

(Figure 2)

3. The hand holds one side of the face, preventing the head from turning to that direction and holding for 5 seconds. Then change sides.

If you use a strong or hot oil, you can bruise, bleed in the muscles causing spasms of your neck muscles more. Abuse of hot oil is also susceptible to reactive dermatitis. Please use warm packs, warm or warm water bags after long hours of working. Finally, limit the wear of bags that weigh more than 3kg and always keep your body warm.

Dr. TO MINH CHAU (HCMC Sports Medicine Association)