Health blog Category: ergonomics
Don’t Wait To Treat Lower Body Discomfort
Back discomfort can be debilitating no matter what your walk of life. People living with back pain are often plagued by the inability to sleep, stiffness or difficulty with activities that they love. At Loudoun Sports Therapy Center, our goal to help you treat your back problems through targeted strengthening and specific exercises so you can get you back to living life on your own terms.
Like many conditions, when we have pain or discomfort in one area of the body, if we don’t handle it, it can start impacting another area of the body.
Ever had a nagging headache that just wouldn’t go away?
By: C. Ashley Border, DPT
Ever had a nagging headache that just wouldn’t go away? Headaches can start for a variety of causes including muscular tension and weakness in the neck, stress, dehydration or low blood sugar, outdated reading glass prescriptions, or something sinister like a stroke, head injury, or other systemic problems in the body.
In the physical therapy world, we treat lots of patients with headaches and often times, the culprit is tightness and tension in the neck muscles which is what we’ll focus on today.
How we sit at our desk matters
By Angie Austin, LPTA
Understanding ergonomics will help you better apply it to your daily life and well being. Ergonomics is defined by the dictionary as an applied science concerned with designing and arranging things people use so the people and thinks interact efficiently and safely.
Everything you sit in or lie down on refers to how your body is positioned or your posture. They can include everything from the desk you use, the chair you sit on at work, your car seat, your home sofa or your bed.
Office Ergonomics: Is Our Desk in Ergo Shape…
Do you ever experience pain or discomfort while working at your desk? Do you experience headaches, eye strain, shoulder, neck or back pain while sitting at your workstation? If you answered yes, then your office may have some shaping up to do.
So what exactly is ergonomics? Ergonomics is defined as “an applied science concerned with designing and arranging items people use so that people and things interact most efficiently.” So, how do we apply ergonomics to our everyday workplace settings?
Clicking a mouse or using a keyboard uncomfortable?
Let PT give you a helping hand with your elbow, wrist, or hand issue. Physical therapist is not just about getting people walking again. Physical therapists can also treat your upper extremities issues that impact one’s ability to type, hold, grip, squeeze, and perform other fine motor tasks with one’s hand required throughout a typical day. For example, some of the most common issues for we see throughout the elbow, wrist, and hand include tennis elbow, carpal tunnel, De Quervain’s tendinitis, and post- wrist fracture.
Read full blogDifficulty Sleeping, Exercising or Working?
By: Jason Makoutz, DPT
Q&A
- How does back pain usually start?
Many times back pain starts from a specific incident where you overexerted yourself, lifted something improperly, performed more of an activity than you were used to, sitting/standing more prolonged amount of time, or a traumatic incident. Often times it is a combination of several of these things. Sometimes it doesn’t hurt right away, but may begin to bother you several days later.
Read full blogTurning the Steering Wheel Uncomfortable?
By C. Ashley Border, PT, DPT
Ever wonder what in the world the “shoulder” actually is?
The main joint of the shoulder is called the glenohumeral joint. This articulation consists of the head of the humerus (arm bone) resting in the small glenoid fossa of the scapula (shoulder blade), some would describe this joint as a golf ball on a tee. If you imagine how unstable a golf ball is on a tee, you can appreciate how hard the supporting anatomical structures must work to keep the “ball from falling off the tee.” The structures holding the joint together that offer passive stability consist of the labrum and a series of ligaments that encapsulate the joint.
Carrying a heavy back pack or purse everyday?
By Devin Wurman, DPT
Back pain is one of the most common complaints that patients have when they are coming to physical therapy. It is not only affecting middle-aged adults, but becoming more prevalent in the younger adult population. Most patients that come in report dealing with the pain for at least a month or more because they believe “it will go away on its own”, however more and more people have sedentary desk jobs or are performing activities without addressing core muscle strength.
Reading in bed or sleeping on an old pillow?
By: Angie Austin, LPTA
Your neck is a vital yet vulnerable part of your body due to its ability to move in all directions. That’s all while holding the weight of your head, which is an average of 10 pounds. While neck pain or pain in the cervical spine is not as common as say lower back pain, located int eh lumbar spine, millions of people will experience neck pain or problems st some point in their lives.
Missing a good night’s sleep because of discomfort?
By: Cierra Washington, ATC
Let’s take some time to talk statistics. Roughly two-thirds of Americans suffer from low back pain in particular, yet only 63 percent actually take the steps to relieve their pain, according to the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). Of those two-thirds, 69% say their lower back pain affected their daily lives in different ways such as exercise, sleeping, working and time with family and friends. Those four activities alone make up almost the entire day for most Americans.