3 Strategies for Managing Back Pain at Your Desk Job

You get into your car, go to work, come home and eat, then maybe watch a little TV with the family. If you work at a desk job, this daily scenario means that you’re doing a lot of sitting each day, which isn’t doing your back any favors.

In the United States, office workers spend about two-thirds of their days sitting, and this position can increase intradiscal pressure by about 30%. This extra pressure can become painfully obvious if you're already dealing with a back issue that’s making you considerably less comfortable and productive at work.

As our name suggests, our team here at Revive Spine and Pain Center specializes in spine issues like low back pain, and we’ve found that desk jobs can make the issue a lot worse.

We’ve also found that there are some effective strategies for managing your back pain at work, and we want to share some key ones here.

Get relief from your back pain

If you’re struggling with back pain at work and at home, come in to see us so we can figure out what’s going on. From there, we can provide you with some frontline treatments to make you more comfortable. 

We offer a wide range of nonsurgical treatments that can give you a break from your low back pain so you can take steps at work to protect your back.

Make your workspace back friendly

Many health experts are calling sitting the new smoking, as it makes you more vulnerable to musculoskeletal, metabolic, and cardiovascular issues. So once we manage your back pain, we ask you to take a look around your workspace to ensure that you’re supporting your back as best you can.

Some good tools for this include:

• A foot rest that keeps your knees in line with your hips to take pressure off your low back
• Arm rests to keep your forearms and wrists straight
• Lumbar support in the chair to keep your low back straight
• Screens at eye level to keep your head up

Some people have done away with sitting altogether and have standing desks, which allow you to work while you’re on your feet. These desks can transition from sitting to standing so you can take a break.

Move and stretch at least once an hour

Even if you take steps to make your workspace more back friendly, it’s still a good idea to get up at least once every hour to move around and stretch. For example, instead of sending a colleague a text or email, why not pay them an in-person visit? 

Another effective practice is to take your meetings and calls on the go and walk and talk.

There are plenty of creative ways to move, especially since much of our technology moves with us these days.

If you’d like some more tips for protecting your back at your desk job or you want to get ahead of your back pain, please contact us at one of our New Jersey offices in Marlton, Hamilton Township, Northfield, or East Brunswick to schedule an appointment.