Do you sit at a desk for most of your day? Do you suffer from chronic headaches?
Posture can play a big part in this. While you are reading this, take a look at where your shoulders and neck are. Are they slumped forward? Are your ears over your shoulders? Most likely not and many of us sit in this position for 8 hours or more a day. This causes muscles to get over stretched, overworked, or shortened and puts a lot of strain on the vertebrae in your neck which is further worsened when we spend so much time looking down at our phones after work hours. All of this leads to headaches and pain in your neck that won’t go away.
Not only does poor posture lead to headaches, but eye strain from looking at a computer all day, could be a contributing factor. When your eyes begin to fatigue and tire out, it is common to start getting migraines or headaches. Here are some tips to help reduce neck and eye strain.
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30/30 rule: Every 30 minutes take a 30 second break to either stand up, stretch or just look away from your computer. You may need to set a timer on your computer or phone.
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Make sure your chair is properly adjusted. You should be able to feel the lumbar support on your low back but in many cases the chair seat is too long so you may need to bring another support such as a towel roll in.
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Monitor should be 1 arm's length away. This reduces eye strain and fatigue. You may also look into getting blue light glasses to help filter the light from your computer.
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The top of the monitor should be no higher than eye level. If it is too high you can tip your head back causing you to tighten the muscles in the back of your neck, leading to headaches.
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Try the stretches below to assist with reducing strain on your neck!
If you have any questions about implementing these adjustments in your place of work feel free to reach out. We offer onsite ergonomic evaluations where we can customize a plan to suit your specific needs.