The Effects of Spending Too Long at the DESK
Sitting at the desk for too long can have detrimental effects on your body. Here are the common changes that can occur resulting in injury and pain.
THE EFFECTS OF SPENDING TOO LONG AT THE DESK
Spending a lot of time tied to your desk? You are likely to be developing some imbalances in your body that are exposing you to pain and injury. Sustained postures are often the cause of many overload injuries that present to our clinic. Learn how your desk setup is affecting your body.
SITTING FOR TOO LONG = TIGHT HIP FLEXORS - In general both at work and in life we sit for too long. In the car, on the couch, at the dining table, at the desk, think about how long you spend sitting. This shortens and tightens the hip flexor muscles which can cause a forward tilt of the pelvis, a common precursor to back and lower limb pain or injury.
SLOUCHED POSTURE/ROUNDED SHOULDERS - Typically people slouch at their desk. Fatigue in the chair, squinting at the screen, and even leaning over a paper document all place the shoulders in a hunched, rounded position. This causes weakness in retractor muscles especially the lower trapezius in the mid back, and stiffness throughout the thoracic spine. The combination of stiffness and weakness in this area is the cause of most mid back pain and can predispose you to impingement injuries in the shoulder.
CHIN POKE - The neck is also placed in a sub optimal position when we are fatigued or slouched at the desk. As a result of the rounded shoulders the upper part of the spine in the neck is forced to extend to order to keep our eyes looking up at the screen. This extended position in closes down or compresses the joints of the spine causing irritation and stiffness. This is often associated with the development of nasty headaches.
Come in and see one of our physiotherapists who can provide your with treatment, advice, and exercise prescription to not only help reduce these imbalances, but prevent them from developing in the first place. Call (03) 5174 7250 or book online by clicking the BOOK NOW button below.
By Tamika Fasoli - Physiotherapist
Simple SHOULDER Tips to Keep You Injury Free
With a run of shoulder injuries in the clinic lately, here are some tips to keep your workouts shoulder safe.
SIMPLE SHOULDER TIPS TO KEEP YOU INJURY FREE
Shoulder injures have been by far the most common complaint to our Physiotherapists in the last month. We are unsure of the reason, maybe its the start of footy season, who knows. Here's a review of some simple ways of keeping your workouts shoulder friendly.
1. Limit Overhead Exercises
Many gym training programs involve extensive overhead pressing movements – however from our experience they are often over-rated and can lead to shoulder issues. There is nothing wrong with doing some shoulder presses but make sure you do not do them from the behind the neck position and don’t do more than one overhead pressing movement in each shoulder based workout.
2. Watch the Range on your Dumbbell Bench Pressing
I have often told trainers and clients to not let the elbows drop below the level of the torso when doing exercises like a Dumbbell Bench Press- whilst it is inviting to use this increased range the risks to your shoulders are often not worth the potential problems. To be safe imagine you are benching on a flat floor and your elbows cannot go past your body anyway – not a bad analogy and certainly much safer than low pressing.
3. Balance Your Workouts
Make sure you always do some wide rowing exercises to balance your bench pressing. Do some wider pull downs to balance your shoulder pressing and also include some work on the small rotator cuff muscles to make sure all the areas are looked after.
4. Beware of Overload
It is easy to overload our small shoulder stabilizers, especially if you are doing hard gym training 3-4 times a week. The small rotator cuff muscles are easily fatigued if you do chest on one day, shoulder on another, and back on another day. Even though it seems that you are only doing shoulder exercises on one day, the actual shoulder muscles are involved in all of these workouts. Add in some tennis, swimming or throwing activities and your small stabilizers are in real trouble.
If you are having trouble with your Shoulders then contact our clinic on (03) 5174 7250 and our physio team will do our best to get you back to full “pain free” function and keep you there.
By Devon Soutar - Physiotherapist
Remedial Massage and Myotherapy Coming Soon.....
The team at Absolute are very excited to announce that Sports and Remedial Massage will be coming soon....
Remedial Massage and Myotherapy Coming Soon.....
We are excited to announce that Remedial Massage and Myotherapy will soon be on offer at Absolute!
Remedial massage and Myotherapy are great additions to our existing services and can play an important role in keeping muscle tension and stress under control. Regular treatment helps your muscles to manage any developing overload, keeps your soft tissues supple, and can prevent many common overuse and postural related injuries.
Keep an eye out for some juicy special offers over the coming weeks!
New Clinic Now Open
Our new clinic which has opened its doors at 2/15 Breed Street in Traralgon
New Clinic Now Open
We are finally OPEN.
Our new architecturally designed clinic is NOW OPEN @ 2/15 Breed Street, Traralgon. Drive past and check out or new location or drop in and ask us more about the services we offer.
We also stock popular rehab products so if you are after that new Foam Roller for the upcoming winter sports season or some Theratubing for your rehab program swing by and visit us.
