It Hurts Me To Write This Article
©Pete Malicki

That’s right, dear readers, it hurts me to write this article. Every sentence I plough my way through gets harder and harder and I don’t know if I’ll make it all the way to the end. The thought of putting the finishing touches on it brings a tear to my eyes.

‘But why does writing this hurt you, Pete?’ I hear you ask. ‘Is it deeply personal? Did a loved one pass away from a crippling disease? Are you “coming out” to the internet community?’

No no no, I reply. Writing this article hurts me in the physical sense. Sitting in front of this damned computer all day really hurts me.

If you’re like me – and I know I am – you’ll be in pain by the end of a long day. You work on the computer all day then go home and check your emails. You do some online shopping, write your blog, read the news, network socially, hack into the FBI mainframe, look at porno. Whatever. The point is, many people these days practically live on their computers, and the damned things are damaging us.

We are by nature active creatures, and protracted idleness in any form is bad. If we stand all day working as check-out chicks, it’s bad. If we lounge around all day watching TV, it’s bad. If we lie on our beds and stare at the ceiling all day because no one loves us and we’re really depressed, well, that’s extra bad. Humans were made to run around doing stuff, not sit in front of computers for 40 hours a week.

But the reality is, that’s what we’re doing. Many of us have no choice in the matter; our jobs require us to work with computers and they’re a favoured communication tool. Turning the damned thing off isn’t a very practical solution for most people, so the best we can do is learn to minimise the damage and manage the problems that will inevitably arise from computer use.

I’m going to detail a list of common problems associated with computer use and solutions to them, but first, I’d like to point out an important factoid about types of injuries. There are two major kinds of injuries: acute and chronic. Acute is a short term injury, as in, ouch I fell off my bike and broke my arm. Chronic is a long term injury, as in, ouch I’ve been using this computer for four years and I have tendonitis in my forearms. Most computer-related injuries are chronic, meaning that they’re long term conditions, meaning that they need long term solutions. If you think you can stretch once and you’ll be alright, you’re very sorely mistaken.

Now, some common conditions and what you can do about them:

1) RSI. Repetitive strain injury. This is any injury caused by overuse. It is an umbrella term describing one or more of several chronic problems. Tendonitis is a form of RSI, for example. It’s commonly used to describe pains in the wrist, hands, forearms, or pretty much anywhere in the arms. If your hands or wrists ache from using the mouse and keyboard, you probably have RSI!

What can you do about RSI? If it’s actively hurting you at the moment, you need to rest it. When an area is inflamed, massage and stretching and other forms of physical manipulation can make it worse. Stick an ice pack on it (10 mins is enough) and take a few sick days. When it is not actively inflamed, you can help repetitive strain injuries by stretching your hands and fingers a lot, minimising movement during typing or mousing, and throwing out that keyboard with the stiff keys. Make sure you have good wrist support but be very careful about using those gel wrist pads. If you rest your wrists on these pads, they often cause a small amount of compression that can lead to serious problems like carpal tunnel syndrome. Your hands should rest on those gel pads but they should not put pressure on you.

2) Weird sensations in the hands and arms. Tingling, numbness, pins and needles, sharp pains. These are usually referred sensations caused by neural interference, or squashed nerves. If the nerve that innervates the arm is impinged (the brachial nerve), it may very well cause these weird and wonderful feelings. Any of those symptoms could be indicators that the brachial nerve is being impinged by tight muscles or out-of-place bones.

If you do have any of these sensations, you may need to loosen the muscles impinging the brachial nerve. The two most common places this stems from is the rotator cuff and the lower neck. Place your right hand under your left armpit, then dig your fingers into the back of your shoulder blade there. Is it tight or sensitive? If so (and it probably is), it needs a massage. Stretching this area is rarely achievable and soft tissue therapy is the key. If you want to try a stretch, raise one arm out directly in front of yourself then bring it across the body so that it is parallel to the ground. Most people will only feel this in the upper arm, but if you feel it in the rotator cuff, great. By the way, you should probably go wash your hand now you’ve stuck it in your armpit and it’s all smelly.

If your neural impingement is stemming from the lower neck, you can try sitting up straight and slowly moving your head to the side (opposite side to the pain/tightness). Do this slowly and carefully. If you need to increase the stretch, put your hand on the shoulder with the tightness and gently pull down. So if your head is over to the right, pull down on the left shoulder. But do consider a massage or other physical therapy, because it will be more effective if done properly.

3) Headaches. Do you get them? Headaches are caused by a reduced oxygen supply to the brain. Blood carries oxygen, so headaches are more likely to occur when you have less oxygen in your blood, or if the blood is having trouble getting to the main database.

The solution is to increase the amount of oxygen in your blood by drinking more water and generally improving your diet, or by relieving pressure on the arteries in the neck. If you get headaches, you will be amazed at how effective a good massage can be. My clients will leave without their headaches more often than not after seeing me. However, make sure your therapist is competent – a too-firm massage will cause the muscles to contract as a defensive reflex and quite possibly make the headache worse. If you want to try self massage, stick your fingers into the base of your skull at the top of your spine. These sub-occipital muscles often cause the headaches.

Also, stretch a lot. It will help.

4) Back pains. Does it hurt in the upper back, or the neck, or the lower back, or just everywhere? You need to improve your posture, stretch, and probably get some kind of physical therapy.

The ideal posture at a computer is this: stay as relaxed as possible at all times. Here’s a test: take a deep breath, let it out, and let everything go. Feel everything relax? See how much tension you were holding? Aside from the postural muscles, you shouldn’t be using any energy just sitting there. So when I say ‘Straighten your back,’ do it, but bear in mind you need to be as relaxed as you can.

Alright, so straighten your back. Pull your chin back. Your head should not protrude forwards, and your chin should not point up or down. Your arms should rest by your sides, and your forearms should be at a right angle or slightly lower. Your keyboard should be more or less in your lap. Your mouse should be close, so you don’t have to reach or lean forwards. Your feet should rest flat on the ground and your knees and waist should be at right angles.

If you’re using a laptop, you’re pretty much stuffed. Laptops were designed to be used as portable computers, not desktop computers. Unless you have no alternative, don’t use a laptop. If you have to use one, plug in a mouse and keyboard and at least try to use it like a normal desktop computer. I’m sorry laptop fans, but they were not designed to be used for prolonged periods of time. At least not from a human body perspective.

Bear in mind that if you change your posture for the better, it will cause pain in the short term. You will be using muscles which are used to bludging off, and they won’t be happy at having to work after all these months/years. This can be a painful transition and you may need to think about stretching, massage, chiro, physio, exercise, whatever.

5) Lower back pains or a sore butt. Lower back problems tend to be the most serious and the most volatile, and should be treated with extreme care. However, in many minor cases, there is a lot you can do yourself.

Do you cross your legs? If so, you shouldn’t. Crossing your legs causes one of the muscles in your butt, the piriformis, to shorten. After years of leg-crossing, the piriformis loses its flexibility and it affects the rotation of your hips. This will cause tightness in the butt that almost always spreads to the lower back. It also stuffs up your posture generally.

A great stretch for the piriformis is to pick up your left leg and place the left ankle on the outside of the right knee. Left ankle, right knee. Now reach across with your right arm and pull that left leg across. You’ll feel a strong stretch. That’s the piriformis (among other muscles) sighing with relief. Do this often if you’re a leg-crosser.

6) Sore or tight chest muscles. 95% of computer-users will be tight through the pecs, even if you don’t all feel them. A tight pectoralis minor will pull the shoulder girdle forwards and downwards, which gives you that slumping, slouching posture you probably had before this article made you feel guilty enough to sit properly.

This is one of the more important muscle groups to stretch. Pretend you’re about to give the world’s biggest hug: arms wide and back. You’ll look like Jesus, maybe. Do that at your desk, but what’s better is to do this in a doorway. Open those arms wide and let the frame of the door stretch your chest out. It is important that you keep your shoulders rolled backwards and the chest open, though. To facilitate this, turn your palms upwards as you do the stretch.

7) Sore throat, pain in the front of the neck. The muscles at the front of the neck are overworked as well as those in the back of the neck. When the head protrudes, the sternocleidomastoid has to work double-time. If you turn your head to the right, then down, that big ropey muscle on the left is the sternocleidomastoid, and it’s usually pretty tight.

Stretch these muscles out frequently. Lift your chin up into the air and tilt your head back, but make sure you do not crunch your neck. This stretch needs to be done carefully and you might want to get a professional to show you how to do it if you’re unsure. You can also slowly tilt your head to the side as it’s tilting back. Never push the limits of your neck stretches, because the muscles are easily injured by cavalier exercising.

Well, look, I think that’s probably enough to keep you going for the next few years. If I can make one last point, it’s this: seek professional advice if you have any kind of condition that relates to posture or computer use. This article may give you a few small tips, but let’s face it, you only have one body and you don’t want to screw around with it. The internet will never be a substitute for one-on-one advice or good quality therapy. It might sound like I’ve described your condition perfectly, but it might be caused by something completely different to what I’ve mentioned. Take what I’ve written as a generalisation and not an absolute solution.

And now I’m in pain.

I think I’ll go take a bath.

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Pete is a massage therapist and chiropractor’s assistant who has studied anatomy, physiology and biomechanics. He is also a fiction author, with his awesome novel Eyes And Knives due to be released in March 2009. Check out his website and other Xomba articles.

http://xomba.com/user/petemalicki

http://www.petemalicki.com