Archive for category: Physiotherapy Column

Work Station Set Up

Our bodies are made to move, and when they aren’t moving often you can start to experience stiffness and soreness. We’ve all experienced the pain of standing at a concert for too long, or sitting still while watching a 3 1/2 hour movie. When our brain is focusing on other things, it doesn’t give us the signal that our joints, muscles and nerves need to move.

Being in one position for long periods can cause some muscle groups to shorten and others to lengthen over time. This can be the reason that muscles eventually become tight or weak, joints can become stiff and then nerves aren’t able to glide through the body as they normally do. This will start to accumulate strain in your body.

Don’t fear! We have a few key actions that you can do during and after your work day to prevent strain building up in your body.

1. Take regular breaks from your working position.
   A lot of our clients tell us that they get up often to go to the photocopier, get a glass of water or talk to someone. This may be the case and the question is more about consistency. Are you moving that often every hour, or only some of the day? Ideally, changing your position every 20mins is recommended. A change in position doesn’t have to mean standing up and walking around each time, it may just be doing a gentle spine twist in your chair, turning your neck from side to side, rolling your shoulders or tilting your pelvis back and forth a few times.

2. Choose a reminder system to correct your posture.
   

We love hearing how our clients remind themselves to correct their posture, here are a few suggestions:

• Every time you hear the phone ring
• Before you open an email
• When you walk through a doorway
• Setting the background picture as a reminder on your computer or smart phone
• Using an app that pops up on the screen of your computer or phone

How to prevent strain building up in your body outside of work:

3. Do regular exercise. 
   The more that your body can handle long walks, lifting weights, practising Yoga or gardening, the easier staying in one position at work will seem. Being strong and flexible will not only help you hold a better position at work, it will also help to slow the build-up of strain in your body and prevent injury. Not to mention the added work-life balance benefits! 

4. Get a thorough assessment from your Physiotherapist.
   At Barefoot Physiotherapy, we can assess your nerves, joints, muscles and movements to measure the amount of strain you have built up in your body. You do not need to have any symptoms or conditions to have this assessment; think about it like going to the dentist for a check up to prevent something happening! If there is any strain building up in your body, we can help teach you how to reduce the strain and prevent it coming back again.

Basic Principles 

• Keep work as close as possible to your body (papers, keyboard etc)
• Keep items that are used regularly between hip and shoulder height
• Only short periods of time should be spent doing repetitive tasks and holding static postures (aim for having a break every 20-30mins)
• Keep heavy reference materials in arm’s reach or so that you need to stand to access them
• Maintain upright posture and avoid twisting/slouching

Posture

• Maintain a neutral spine. This means maintaining your 4 natural curves. This position minimises stress on your spine and helps prevent injury. This applies to sitting, standing and lifting postures.
• Ensure your lower back is supported by the chair or a cushion/towel. Your back muscles should be soft
• Keep your head upright and in line with your shoulders.
• Shoulders should be relaxed back and down –  the muscles on top of your shoulders should be soft
• Don’t hold the phone between your ear and shoulder – a headset is ideal

Chair

Adjust the height of your chair to match the following:

• Elbows should be at desk height or slightly above
• Thighs are parallel to the floor & feet flat on the floor – you may need a footrest to achieve this
• Have a 2-3 finger width between back of knee and front of seat
• If you have a very deep seat you may need a cushion behind your back to allow for optimal posture & back support
• Adjust the height of backrest so it fits into curve of lower back
• Tilt backrest backwards slightly to minimise strain through the low back

Desk

• Desk surface should be just below elbow height
• Footrest should not interfere with movement of the chair
• There should be a gap between your desk and your thigh
• Items under the desk shouldn’t interfere with your feet
• Place frequently used items in top drawer
• Place phone so you can reach the handset and buttons without needing to move your trunk

Monitor

• Directly in front
• Top of screen level with or slightly lower than eyes when sitting upright
• Arm’s length away

Keyboard

• Flat on desk
• 5-10cm from front edge of desk
• Don’t rest wrists on desk or keyboard while keying

Mouse

• Directly beside keyboard
• Alternate sides
• Avoid holding mouse while not using it  (avoid holding a prolonged position)
• Avoid controlling the mouse with only  side-to-side wrist movement – keep your wrist  in line with your forearm & move the forearm  & wrist as one

Document Holders

• Place document holder next to the monitor and at the same height and distance as the monitor
• Use an angled surface to decrease prolonged periods of neck bending e.g. when reading for prolonged periods of time

Laptop Computers 

If using a laptop for extended periods of time, consider:

• Docking station to ensure correct screen height and distance (as above)
• Use of external mouse and keyboard to avoid excessive reaching

We understand that sitting at a desk can be a part of every day life, that’s why it’s so important to understand how to take care of your body while at work, or at home!

If you would like any more information, or would like to book in with one of our physios click here.

There is nothing better than a good nights sleep. It can set you up for a productive day, allows for our bodies to reset and helps our mind to clear and recharge. So what happens when your body is strained and tight throughout the night? A bad sleeping posture can lead to pain and joint stiffness – which doesn’t exactly allow for a refreshed state.

Finding the ideal sleep position for YOU is important to ensure that you don’t put any strain on your muscles and joints at night, especially if you already have a musculoskeletal condition. Some clients report to us that they feel stiff or painful first thing in the morning. This makes it extremely important for you to know if you are sleeping in the right position for your body.

One thing to note is that there is not one perfect pillow or mattress for everyone. We all have a different width of our shoulders and a different length of our spine. So how do you know what’s right?

It’s quite simple really…

Your muscles will tell you how happy your body is to be in the position you are in (this applies to other postures as well). The first thing to do is lay on your bed with your normal pillow in your usual sleep position. Place one or both of your hands on your neck muscles and move them around. Do the muscles feel squishy and relaxed, or do they feel tense and ropey? (Try to avoid pushing too hard with your fingers).

Assessing your neck in your sleeping position:

If your neck feels squishy and relaxed, then that pillow and that position is right for you.

If your neck feels tense and ropey, you may need to adjust a few things. First assess this; Is your head in line with your neck, or is it 1. Being pushed up too high, or 2.Hanging down onto the pillow.

1. If your head is being pushed up high, the pillow may be too high for you. Try a different pillow, or if it is an orthopaedic pillow that has a high side and a low side, try the low side. Once you have changed this, re-assess the muscles for squishy-ness.

2. If your head is hanging down onto the pillow it may be too low for you. You could try a different pillow at home that is higher, or build up the height of the one you have. An easy way to build up height is to fold a towel and place it under the pillow. You may have to try different amounts of fold to get the perfect height for you. To keep the towel in place, put it inside your pillow case on the bottom side of the pillow.  Then, re-assess your muscles for feeling soft & squishy.

3. If neither of these works, it may be worth trying a new pillow altogether and do the same tests with a new/different pillow. You can usually do this in store if you are purchasing a new one.

It is often best to avoid sleeping on your tummy for long periods of time as this position often builds up strain in your neck and/or shoulders. Try to make a habit out of sleeping on your back or side.

Assessing your low back in your sleep position:

We will do a similar test on your low back muscles either side of your spine.

Get into your usual comfortable position. If this is on your side, feel the top side of your back muscles. Do they feel squishy and relaxed, or do they feel tense and ropey.

1. If your low back muscles feel tense and ropey when you are on your side, try putting a pillow in between your knees and have your knees slightly bent. Re-assess your back muscles to see if that makes them more relaxed. Similar to finding the right height pillow for you neck, you may have to do the same test/re-test for the pillow in between your knees.

2. If you sleep on your back, slide your fingers under your back and feel the muscles either side of your spine. If they are tense, try putting a pillow under your knees.
3. If neither of these work, try pillows in different places on the bed to support yourself, especially if you are in pain.

If you would like further information, or to book in with one of our Physio’s click here.

We understand that when you are in pain, it can be extremely hard to function and enjoy life on a daily basis. At Barefoot Physiotherapy, our treatment plan is focused on helping you to do what you want with your body!

We use a thorough whole body assessment to work out the underlying cause of the condition. We can then treat it, teach you to treat it and together take care of your body long term – getting you back to doing what you love sooner.

At Barefoot we use a systematic testing process to assess your whole body, this assessment includes testing your:

• nerves
• muscles (including tendons)
• joints (ligaments, discs, bones, cartilage) and
• movements.

In the vast majority of sports and musculoskeletal conditions, this process leads to a rapid and full recovery. During this initial phase, you can trust that you are either going to get rapidly fixed, or a ‘Plan B’ is required.

In a small percentage of conditions, this process quickly identifies that a referral for a different management of the condition is most appropriate, i.e. ‘Plan B’ where we help you find the right path (whether that be imaging, acupuncture, medical etc.) – this is because we don’t continue treating without results.

For the majority of cases (not a Plan B case) treatment then focusses on the underlying cause to reduce its impact on the rest of your body.

We chart your progress including how long and how many sessions will be required to achieve pain free, full function. Below is an example recovery graph.

Importantly – this involves teaching you how to look after your condition to minimise recurrence. Click here for muscle retraining.

Once you are back doing what you want with your body, looking after your condition is the mainstay of treatment. We call this the ‘maintenance phase’ where your Barefoot Physiotherapist checks in on you at increasing intervals (up to 3 months).

There are three main reasons for these sessions:

1. To test and confirm your good self-management
2. Progressing your skills for achieving better performance
3. To treat any re-accumulation of strain that occurred in between sessions as a result of life’s challenges

We know that for each of our clients, their day to day life can be a mix of different activities. To make sure that you are able to keep doing what you love, we offer home, work and gym setups.

This allows you to:

• Optimise motor control and postures
• Improve progression from injured to non-injured state
• Minimise avoidable strain placed on the body (and therefore decrease the frequency of maintenance sessions in the clinic).

Whether you love hiking, walking, rock climbing or just want to be pain free, we want to help you get back to doing what you love. Want to find out more? Click the link here.