Everyone has been there: you
move just right getting out of bed, or getting into your car, and Boom!
The mother of all muscle spasms grabs your lower back or shoulder and
completely ruins the next few days of your life. Later, as you sit at
your desk trying to find a position that takes some of the pressure off,
you begin to wonder "Why me?" After all, you don't have a physically strenuous
job, you eat relatively healthy and you don't over do it at the gym. How
is it that you, of all people, could get in this kind of shape? You might
actually be amazed at all the little things that you do every day at work,
on the road and at home that lay down the foundation for minor cricks,
spasms and sometimes chronic disabilities.
For the past decade or so,
there has been a tremendous push in America to bring the workplace up
to some ergonomic standard. Special keyboards and chairs have been introduced
that help combat the onset of carpal tunnel syndrome and low back pain.
These preventative measures help, but as massage therapists we see hundreds
of people with perfectly preventable problems that have been overlooked
by this movement.
For example, about seventy-five
to eighty percent of the shoulder-neck problems that we see come from
a condition known in the massage industry as "telephone shoulder." This
comes from cradling a telephone receiver between the shoulder and ear
in order to free up the hands for note taking, typing or other work. Prolonged
cradling of the telephone in this manner puts unusual stress on the shoulder,
neck and jaw. Stress that usually manifests itself in the form of painful
knots, migraines and serious neck cricks. The best way to avoid telephone
shoulder is to invest in a headset that plugs into the phone. If this
is out of your budget, simply realizing what you are doing and making
a conscious effort to stop should also do the job.
Another problem that we are
frequently called upon to correct is low back pain. In most cases we can
trace the source of the pain to one of two actions: lifting or sitting.
The problem with lifting is obvious; almost everyone can recite the mantra
"lift with your legs, not with your back." The problem with sitting, however,
is not as well known. Simply put, the human body was not designed to sit
in a chair for eight hours a day. It's geared more towards physical engagements,
such as running, walking, climbing and other basic hunter-gatherer activities.
When the body is made to sit for extended periods of time, major supporting
groups of muscles in the back can't do their job properly. After months
or years of misuse, knots and kinks start to set into the tissue, decreasing
muscle flexibility and strength until you move just right and set off
a full-blown spasm.
Ergonomic chairs are a good
deterrent to sitting back strain. This is a special chair that allows
the back to remain straight and support the weight of the upper body more
efficiently. Again, these chairs aren't cheap, but they are a good investment
when you consider the cost of therapy (or even surgery in severe cases.)
Oftentimes, how long we sit
isn't as bad for us as how we sit. Bad habits such as leg crossing and
sitting on your foot are as hard on the body as incorrect lifting. You
don't really think of crossing your legs when you sit as being harmful,
but consider the structure of the hip and lower back. When you cross your
legs, you are actually pulling your leg out of the hip socket, placing
it back in at an awkward angle and leaving it there for a prolonged period
of time. This is not only bad for the hip joint, but cuts off circulation
to the leg, puts pressure on the sciatic nerve and causes even more strain
on the already misused lower back muscles. Ditto with sitting on your
foot, only with that you get the added bonus of throwing the spine off-kilter
to compensate for the uneven surface. In some cases sitting on your foot
has even been suspected of causing scoliosis (permanent curvature of the
spine.)
The reason that leg crossing
and sitting on your foot are so habit forming is because they are natural
reactions and feel good at the time. The pressure that they relieve, however,
is coming from an unnatural source: prolonged sitting. Whenever you feel
the urge to cross your legs or sit on your foot, that's a good indication
that it's time to get up and stretch. Take a few minutes to walk around
the office and get the blood moving.
These problems and habits
aren't confined to the workplace. The car is another hot zone for bad
ergonomics. Again we see the problem of prolonged sitting. If you live
close to work then there's probably not much of a problem here, but if
you have a commute of half an hour or more then you might want to think
about daily low back stretches in the mornings or evenings to keep loose.
Also, if you are prone to
long drives, here are some tips to keep things running smoothly. First,
get into the habit of modulating your hand placement on the steering wheel
to fit your drive. For short trips (10 to 15 minutes) gripping the wheel
at the two o'clock and ten o'clock positions is O.K., but for anything
longer try to keep your hands lower, like around the five o'clock and
seven o'clock positions. When your hands are higher up, your shoulders
tend to stay bunched up around your neck and ears. By dropping your hands
for longer trips, your shoulders can stay relaxed and loose.
Second, if you carry a wallet,
try to put it in the glove compartment rather than your back pocket on
long drives. Wallets throw the back and hips out of alignment when the
body is forced to make up for the uneven surface. They also tend to cut
off circulation to the leg.
Finally, watch what you do
with your arms and legs when you are in the car. If you notice that you
tend to lean on one elbow, try to break yourself of it. If you tend to
kick one leg out, pay attention to what that does to the hip. If you catch
yourself favoring the clutch more than you should, correct that too. Long
drives are murder on the body, but if you keep an eye out and make a conscious
effort, you can keep them from taking such a toll.
Another popular client of
ours is the at home weekend warrior. These are the men and women who come
out during the spring and attempt to do an entire winter's worth of house
cleaning and yard work on the first pretty Saturday of the season. The
thing to remember here is to watch your lifting habits. A rake, a broom,
or even car keys for that matter are plenty heavy enough to throw out
a back if picked up wrong. Most of the backaches that we work on come
from lifting extremely light objects. After years of hunching over a computer,
sitting in an office chair or in a car seat, it doesn't take much to push
those muscles over the line. Lift with your legs, not with your back.
Also, when bringing the groceries
in from the car, try not to carry more than two plastic bags in each hand
at a time. The temptation with plastic bags is to run the handles as high
up on the wrist and arm as you can in order to get everything in one trip.
This puts a tremendous strain on the ligaments and tendons of the elbow.
Tennis elbow is very painful to have and to work on, so try not to hurt
yourself in order to save a few trips to the car.
There is a saying in our profession,
"Your body is your home." No matter where you spend your time or keep
your stuff, your body is the only true home that you will keep for your
entire life. Many of the problems that we as massage therapists work on
can be prevented by simply paying attention to what is going on with your
body and making slight behavioral modifications in order to help it out.
What we hope that you have picked up here is a little preventative maintenance
that will go a long way toward keeping your home in good repair.
David A. Dodson is a Registered
Massage Therapist in the state of Texas. He has been in practice since
1996. If you have any questions for him you may e-mail him at david@viewonline.com.
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