Do you struggle with aches and pains? Do you finish your work day and have a stiff neck or headaches?
We spend a lot of time looking down at our phones, working at a computer and often barely get up from our desks. This causes our shoulders to roll forward and our pecs to get right, our shoulders also lift due to the muscles in our neck getting short. Short neck muscles pull on the head and can cause headaches.
What can we do?
Each day with our working posture, our muscles get short and tight. If we can stretch them out during the day and then when we have finished work for the day, then we increase their length and loosen the muscles.
If you can, have a sand timer on your desk or set a mindfullness bell (there is an app called mindfullness bell that gives you a chime every hour or at a time interval that suits you.) Take a break from work and spend a couple of minutes stretching your neck. Take your ear to your shoulder and reach the opposite hand down to the floor. You should feel the stretch down the side of your neck. Then turn your nose to look at your armpit and stretch your neck at a diagonal. You should feel the stretch between your head and the corner of your shoulder blade. Then take your chin to your chest and stretch the head straight downwards. You should feel the stretch either side of your spine. Then to stretch your legs, to help the shoulder roll, stand by a door or wall and with your arm against it, twist away from your hand so your body faces the other way. You should feel the stretch across your chest.
Do these stretches again at the end of your work day.
Check out my you tube video showing you some stretches that you can follow along to:
Heat for achy muscles
Heat works wonders at the end of a work day. Have a hot bath and if you can add epsom salts, book in for a infrared sauna when you can and use a warm wheat bag and place it across your neck and shoulders. Heating the muscles helps them to relax and relives the tension we build up throughout the day.
Yoga and Pilates
If you can finish the day with some yoga stretches or some Pilates exercises to open the chest, that will really help open everything back out again. There are lots of fabulous online classes now, or find a local class if you prefer. One exercise to include is a Pilates exercise called arm opening. Lie on your side with your arms out in front of you and knees up at 90 degrees. Have your head resting on a pillow. Reach your arm up to the ceiling and look up at the hand then reach back behind you til your hand reaches the floor and your head rolls to look at the hand. Hold it there for a couple of breaths and then reach back to the ceiling and back with the arm out in front.
Changing your work space
Have a look at where you are working. Is your desk a good height, do you have a good chair. Do you have something on the floor to one side that you spend all day teaching down to or something far out to the side that you reach for throughout the day. Can you streamline to help your body?
Massage for achy muscles
We recommend a deep tissue massage once a month where possible, to help lengthen out those muscles and check for any imbalances like shoulders rolling forward. This can really help tension headaches and painful neck and shoulders. Then in between massages, you can keep everything looser with the tips above.
Check out my YouTube video on deep tissue massage to see what this massage involves and how it can help you.
Book your next massage here: https://vitaskinspa.co.uk/online-booking/
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