CLEVELAND — Nearly 80% of the population will experience back pain at some time in their lives, according to the American Chiropractic Association.

What You Need To Know

  • Habits formed while working at home during the pandemic may make posture worse

  • People are sitting and slouching for longer in their at-home work environments

  • There are inexpensive ways people can correct this issue 

Neck pain isn't foreign to Columbus young professional Kalie Holub, but working from home for months because of the pandemic has only made matters worse. 

“I've always kind of had like some neck problems, but with COVID and being working from home, I was getting like really bad neck spasms, and I wasn't really sure if maybe just COVID stress or working from home, having like the temptation of doing it in bed or like sitting on the couch and working and like constantly doing this,” said Holub. 

 

At 25 years old, she’s already seeing a chiropractor/physical therapist for her troubles so her spasms don’t get worse. 

“So that's when I kind of moved forward with the standing desk,” said Holub. 

A standing desk can be a good idea to help decrease poor posture, said Chad Adams, who’s a chiropractic physician at the Cleveland Clinic. 

“People often talk about, well, should I use a standing desk? Yes, you should. But you also shouldn't stand all day. So, I will tell those folks that have that ability to vary the height of their desk. Use the first top, the top of the hour standing, the bottom of the hour sitting,” said Adams. 

Many people have been working from home for about a year and already Adams is seeing patients come to him with what he calls “work from home injuries.” He said this is from the increased sitting and slouching people are doing for hours at a time. Adams said people are being asked to sit and punch away at a computer for eight or more hours a day, and bodies aren’t meant to do that. 

“It's always been dangerous, and we're just now really coming to realize how dangerous it actually is,” said Adams. 

But there are things people can do to help decrease their slouching and bad posture while working .First, he recommends getting your computer at eye level. No need to buy a standing desk — Adams said there are simpler ways to help your neck and back. 

“So a fairly cheap fix for that is if you can get a Bluetooth or a wireless keyboard that you can connect to the laptop," Adams said. "So that's No. 1. We have to get the keyboard and the mouse away from the monitor itself, and then just find any old Amazon box that we all have laying around the house and simply prop up your laptop."

Next Adams recommends people get up and get moving. He said people shouldn’t sit for more than 30 minutes at a time. He recommends setting reminders throughout the day or using discomfort as a guide. If your body starts hurting in a spot, that’s a sign to get up and move around. 

“You don't have to go and do 25 burpees or an extensive workout program. But if you'll just get up and do some simple movement, move your neck, just think about making the biggest circle possible with your head and neck that's comfortable,” said Adams. “Move your shoulders and not just a couple of these (small circles), but move the whole arm and as big a circle as possible, the hips, the ankles, the legs, get the blood flowing again.”

Making sure to be aware of your posture throughout the day is important as Adams said the force of gravity is constant and can slowly damage our bodies if we don’t work to counteract it. 

“What we're seeing is advanced degenerative disease. We're seeing bone spurs. We're seeing the discs between the bones flat. Now we're seeing the change in the curvature of the spine. All of these things don't happen overnight. They can't physiologically, they can't happen. So what does that mean? It's happening to you right now? You just don't know it yet,” said Adams.  

Some people think they’re too old to make a difference or improvement in their posture or neck or back pain. Adams said young or old, it’s never too late to make a change. 

“We have to add grease to those joints as often as possible. Do you have to do this for an extensive amount of time? No, but take 10 seconds here, 30 seconds there, 5 minutes over here,” said Adams. “Variability of movement is the wonder of the human body. Stand for a little while, sit for a little while, (and) slouch a little bit. We're not giving free license to just file all day, but that might be OK as long as there's a variability of movement.”

Holub’s already been working on better posture and moving her body throughout the day in hopes of avoiding long term issues. 

“If I'm on a meeting or a conference call sometimes I walk back and forth or you know, like pace or whatever, just move around. Whereas before I would just kind of stayed put in my seat,” said Holub.