(Credit: Adobe Stock)

Life as a desk worker involves more than just your mental energy; it takes a toll on your physical well-being as well. Various parts of the body can experience discomfort, tightness, and pain due to prolonged sitting and repetitive tasks. This article will go over some common desk worker injuries and how to best implement recovery strategies for long-term health and wellness.

Anatomy of a Desk Worker

As desk workers, we’re not being subjected to violent impacts or sudden changes of direction like a professional athlete. However, we do have to contend with lower degrees of force and load over extended periods of time…in positions that aren’t that favourable for us to be in to begin with.

For us to best understand the niggles and aches that come along with working in a seated position, we have to first look at what that position does to our body, and why it might be causing us trouble. 

Common Desk Worker Injuries & Pain Points

We will now run through the to see what we find, hopefully helping you to better understand why you might be feeling a particular sensation before, throughout, or at the end of a long office shift.

Refer to the above picture and follow along with the numbered points below. (Credit: Adobe Stock w/edits by author)

1. Neck

Our heads actually weigh quite a bit (approximately 8% of our bodyweight), and all that weight has to be supported by our neck. As the head drifts forward, the weight of our head becomes exponentially heavier, forcing the neck muscles into a state of hypertonicity (increased tension); this is a leading cause of neck pain and headaches in office workers.

2. Upper Back & Shoulders

As the head drifts forward the upper back and shoulders also tend to round. The big muscles in our back are not designed to hold us in an upright, perfect posture all day—it’s not what we’re made to do (we’re made to move). Hunched backs and rounded shoulders inhibit breathing, forcing us to breathe into our chests, overworking secondary respiratory muscles in the neck.

3. Lower Back

One of the most common desk worker injuries is lower back pain. Sitting for extended periods without proper lumbar support can contribute to muscle imbalances and spinal misalignment, resulting in stiffness, tightness, and pain in the lower back. The hip flexors (and their dysfunction), which we’ll discuss next, are also major culprits in this problem.

4. Hip Flexors

The hips are in an incredibly cramped (flexed) position while seated in an office chair. If we hold this position for prolonged periods of time, we’re subject to a phenomenon known as adaptive muscle shortening (muscle shortening from habitual use). These now short and tight hip flexors pull on the lumbar spine, exaggerate the lumbar curve, and cause all sorts of problems and pain.

5. Glutes/Hamstrings

Desk work involves minimal activation of the gluteal (bum) and hamstring (back of thigh) muscles, leading to tightness and weakness in these areas. Prolonged sitting can cause these muscles to become stiff and inflexible, increasing the risk of discomfort and pain in the lower back and hips. Related desk worker injuries include pelvic misalignment issues and sciatica.

6. Calves & Ankles

Foot positions similar to the one pictured above are often seen in the office. Crossing the feet and coming up onto the balls of the feet shortens the plantar flexors (i.e. calves; gastrocnemius, soleus, plantaris) and achilles tendon, especially when combined with high-heeled dress shoes. Pain, inflexibility and a heightened risk of injury are all likely outcomes of these postures.

(Credit: Adobe Stock)

Solutions for Desk Worker Injuries

The above list is not exhaustive by any means. As we alluded to at the beginning of this article, sitting in an office chair is not a natural position for our bodies to be in, resulting in all sorts of peculiar muscle adaptations and imbalances. Resultantly, corrective measures are necessary to ensure we retain (or regain) a functional level of health—here’s what we need.

Stretching & Mobility

All these nasty tightnesses in the neck, back, hips, thighs and so on need to be reversed. We literally need to unwind the body, and bring back some level of regular tension and sliding surface action to the tissues. A corrective stretching and mobility protocol is one of the keys to achieving this initially, and further to prevent problems from occurring in the future.

Here’s a simple stretch to help get you started, the cat-cow stretch:

Cat-Cow

Instructions:

• Start on all fours in a kneeling position
• Protract the shoulder blades (moving them away from the spine) and round the back into a hunch (picture 1)
• Round as far as you can while keeping your hands and knees on the ground
• Once you reach your end range, reverse the position, and go as far as you can into extension (picture 2)
• Repeat this motion back and forth for 30-60 seconds

The cat-cow would be classified as a mobility exercise that focuses particularly on the flexion and extension capacity of the spine. Sitting at the desk all day tends to discourage this kind of movement, which makes the vertebrae stiff and brittle. Performing cat-cow before/after work is a great way to encourage blood flow and movement throughout the entire spine.

Strength Training

Just as important as being flexible is being strong. In fact, the two often go hand-in-hand, as a muscle that is strong throughout a given range of motion will more easily move through that range of motion. The muscles that are constantly in a stretched position while sitting become weak, and as a result, we must strengthen them through targeted training.

Here’s an exercise to get you started, the prone back extension:

Prone Back Extension

Instructions:

• Start by lying on your stomach with your arms stretched out in front of you
• Lift your arms and head off the ground (picture 1)
• Pull your arms back into a 90° position while at the same time lifting the chest off the ground (picture 2)
• Pause for a split second and squeeze the shoulder blades together while extending the upper and lower back
• Lower the chest and return the hands out in front, keeping them hovering off the ground
• Repeat the sequence for 30-60 seconds

This prone back extension exercise works on strengthening all of the muscles that we just loosened up in the previous cat-cow mobility exercise. This is the proper way to coordinate strength and mobility exercises, they should all complement each other and serve a specific purpose relative to your situation; in this case, common pain and injuries from desk work.

ReverseSit | Strength & Mobility for Desk Workers

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