Due to the pandemic, more people have been working from home now than ever before. And if you are like us, we are constantly fighting against a significant other (also working from home) and children doing remote learning to find a room in the house to work or have a virtual work meeting. Over the past months, we’ve all worked from random places inside and outside the home just to find a quiet, secluded place. And oh, the joys of randomly get bumped off the internet because too many family members are using it!!
After working from home for almost 11 months now, you may be feeling the aches and pains of the remote situation. The most common are stiff joints, Temporomandibular joint pain (TMJ) and neck pain. There are lots of ailments that one can feel simply by sitting and looking at a computer screen 8+ hours a day. The good news is that physical therapy can help you feel better! Here’s how….
Stiff joints –
We at Fitzgerald are huge believers in movement as medicine. Taking painkilling drugs or leading a sedentary life in order to compensate for your daily aches and pains isn’t a healthy way to combat your condition. We treat this in various ways:
- Joint mobilization techniques. Joint mobilization techniques can help improve your pain-free range of motion and increase your function. You may also benefit from techniques aimed at breaking up internal scar tissue, which can form over old injuries and cause chronic stiffness.
- Dynamic exercise. Corrective dynamic exercises are ones that helps mitigate muscle imbalances with movement based mobility. For example, high knees or butt kicks are a type of dynamic mobility activity. Moving while you are stretching is a great way to length and warm muscles relieving aches and pains.
- Stretching exercises. Stretching exercises help injured muscles and connective tissues heal back to their former length and range of motion. These exercises are also good for keeping arthritic joints from becoming stiffer.
TMJ –
Feeling pain in the head, ear, face, jaw, and neck? TMJ disorders occur when something goes wrong with your jaw joints (temporomandibular joints) and jaw muscles. Oftentimes, this happens because of a jaw injury, inflammation such as with arthritis, overuse and muscle strain.
Physical therapy for TMJ disorders can involve various treatments such as:
- Corrective exercises/postural re-training
- Massage/manual therapy
- dry needling
- Stretching and relaxing exercises are usually combined with the treatment to further improve results
Neck Pain –
Feeling pain and stiffness in your neck? Physical therapy is one of the most common treatments for chronic neck pain. Most physical therapy programs for neck pain involve applying treatments to reduce pain and/or stiffness enough to begin an exercise program of strengthening and stretching the neck. The specific methods and exercises used in physical therapy, as well as the duration of the treatment plan, can vary from person to person.
Most often a plan of care will involve the patient moving his or her own body through exercises and stretches. By improving strength and flexibility in the neck, these muscles may become less painful and better able to maintain good posture, which reduces stress on the cervical spine. Often there are specific movements that will reduce the pain and knowing which ones are appropriate for each individual is the job of your skilled PT.
We at Fitzgerald PT are here to help you feel better! Don’t suffer the aches and pains of working from home any longer – come see us! Give us a call at 781-321-7000 or contact us via our website now to learn more.
