Sitting and postural advice for patients suffering from chronic neck pain

The ergonomic advice for a patient suffering from chronic neck pain is that a person should maintain a good posture during all activities of daily living. If a person starts to feel stiff or sore in the neck or anywhere in the body, then the person can change his/her routine positional habits or modify the body mechanics.

Our body warns us using the pain as a signal when our body mechanics are not properly aligned. A lot of times, we ignore these short-term pain signals in order to complete our paper, project, or work assignment. If we do not listen to our body's demands of rest and recuperation, then it is very late and severe pain or inflammatory process is initiated. Your body's metabolism becomes weak as antibodies have done their best to eradicate short-term pain signals but now are tired and want you to take some action. So the best and easy way to avoid acute pain is to always remember to listen to your body.

In most cases, severe back and neck pain is experienced by people working on a computer.

How to sit?

One should sit up straight, as it feels good and puts very little amount of strain on your back, neck, and overall spinal muscles. If you have to bend or sit too often at your workplace or for a long period of time, bend or sit towards the opposite portion of your body or direction in order to balance stress out and for relieving muscle tension.

More on sitting. When you are sitting, you should arch your back around five to ten times if you are feeling stiff. Remember to repeat this exercise two to three times in a day or more if you are feeling stiff and sore.

Some stretching exercises to do at your workplace or desk:

1. Roll your shoulders backwards times 10.
2. Squeeze your shoulder blades times 10.
3. Chin in times 10.
4. Chin in and slowly stretch your head towards back times 10.
5. Turn your over the shoulders times 10 in each direction.
6. Stand beding at the back and then stretch times 10.

Headaches accompanied with neck pain

If a person suffering from neck pain also starts having headaches, then the sufferer can start doing some cervical retractions or chin tucks around ten to fifteen times every couple of hours, or can hold his/her head in a retracted posture for upto three minutes to eliminate some of the headache symptoms. Unfortunately, if the inflammation process has been prolonged and this exercise does not help, then the person can reduce it by lying supine or on the back with ice gel pack placed right at the base of person's skull for around 20 minutes.

For a sore neck:

If a person's neck is sore or he/she is experiencing pain going down towards the shoulder blades or having tight/stiff muscles, the person can bend his/her head backwards around ten to fifteen times.

This process should be repeated a couple of hours if the person is continuing to have a sore neck. If the person is feeling really stiff and also feels pinching, go ahead slowly, move very little at a time, and apply some ice as well.

Hot packs or ice packs, both block pain's pathway. The most important thing is to identify the real cause of the pain and treat it. People suffer from chronic neck pain from temporomandibular joint dysfunction also. Chiropractic treatment will always include postural corrections while lifting weights:

1. Load should always be kept very close to body.
2. Do not ever lift heavy weights or loads.
3. Always ensure and check path of load which is to be carried. Remember it should be clear enough to prevent re-injury.
4. Before lifting up, some mild stretches should always be done to warm up your body.
5. Avoid any twisting motions, as you transfer the weight from one place to another or from one body part to another.
6. Do not try to reach for items or articles which require an outstretched hand or position.
7. All heavy articles should be kept around 30 to 50 degrees from the floor.
8. Break larger loads into smaller loads.
9. Take very small and constant steps when walking.
10. Move the feet only if direction change is necessary or do pivoting, as this will eliminate the need of frequent twisting.

Neck pain can occur due to different type of etiologies and it is very important to find the exact factor which is causing pain. If it is due to your occupation or workplace issue, a detailed assessment of your work habits and your work load has to be done in order to find out the right cause and the neck pain you are experiencing is caused by these maneuvers or not.