How To Prevent Back Pain While Working At Home

Back pain while working at home? Yep, this is one of the many things as a result of the COVID pandemic.  This pandemic has changed numerous situations in our lives, including our working environment, like working at home. If you're one of these people, you may be noticing some new body aches, especially in your back and neck, that you may not have noticed while working outside of the home.

You see, sitting at your desk all day can cause so many issues, mainly because most home offices do not contain ergonomic office furniture. Furthermore, we are usually working alone, not like an office setting where you were more active because of coworkers. This constant non-movement, unhealthy sitting, and lousy body positioning can cause tons of problems.

According to a study published by the Mayo Clinic, back pain is the third most common cause of doctor visits in the United States. Many people like myself who struggle back pain, also wonder how the heck did this happen. As I did not lift anything, I am not overweight, and I did not twist or turn oddly. But the truth is the back-pain culprit is from sitting eight or more hours, which I do for work!

While I try to stay active, all of that sitting has done tons of damage to my lower back, and it has even caused tech neck!

So, What Is A Person To Do? Implement These Solutions To Prevent Back Pain While Working At Home

Solution 1: Change The Position Of Your Desk Or Computer
Keeping your computer at eye level or slightly higher instead of looking down can help.

Solution 2: Position Your Keyboard At The Correct Position
You want to make sure you position the keyboard and mouse correctly as if they are not you have a greater chance of straining your neck, shoulders, even wrist issues. 

• Place keyboard just below elbow level
• Raise your seat so your elbows are at a 90-110 angle. This will relax your forearms and shoulders.
• The keyboard can be flat on the desk or at a tilt
• Look for a desk or keyboard tray that offers Ergonomic keyboard placement
• Keep your wrists straight, neither curved downwards nor flexed upwards
• Resist resting your wrists on the desk as this places pressure on your tendons
• Practice light typing, no need to be forceful with the keys
• If you have a laptop you should consider getting an external keyboard 
  
• DO not cross your legs; I am so bad at this. Instead, you want to keep both feet flat on the floor.
  

Solution 3: Proper Sitting Posture When Typing
When typing, how you sit dictates the posture of your hands and fingers; hence, you must be considering how you sit. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), maintaining the right posture is essential to maximize your productivity and mitigate work-related MSDs.

• Sit upright by resting your back against the chair for maximum support.
• Both feet need to be on the floor
• Make sure the computer is in a position where you will look straight forward, this impacts your sitting
• Loose shoulders
• Knees should be at the same level or slightly lower than your hips.

Solution 4: Get Up Off Your Ass And Stretch
We can take some methods to help stretch the neck and back muscle and align the head and neck correctly. See some of these below.

• Face yoga
• Arch and stretch
• Neck rotation exercises
• Practice good posture
• And while you are at it do some wrist extensor and flexor stretches
  
• Take breaks away from your phone or computer
  

Solution 5: At Home Massage
While the above are some excellent preventive measures to prevent back pain while working at home, sometimes, that is not enough for me. But beauties have I got a solution for you, the Opillow from NAIPO. It's time to rethink the pillow massager. With this latest generation of massager technology, the OPillow combines multiple functions to offer the best possible massage at any place, including your desk!

 This massager has over five technologies in one. See them below.

Flexible Attachment Cozy Cushion Design
I love that I can attach the massager anywhere as it comes with a Flexible hook attachment that can be used on most office chairs. Allowing quick and easy placement so you can adjust  up and down, allowing you to personalize your experience by adding pressure to targeted regions

Palm Pressure Technology
Enjoy a deep kneading massage experience. Four nodes move simultaneously, with rotational movement that reproduces the feel of an in-person massage.

The Ergonomic Design
This design and position of the Opillow allows for both a back and a neck massage.

Back Massage-18mm massage node height, scientific support your back
Neck Massage-Arc design perfectly fits spinal cervical curves of 35°~ 45°
    

Scientific Heat To Help With Back Pain
I'm on cloud 9 with this option. Adding heat to a massage has long been used to ease muscle tension and pain. Not only can it help to increase the blood flow to the area, but it is excellent at reducing muscle tension while helping to increase flexibility and range of motion.

OPillow Presale

Naipocare was nice enough to allow me share with you a presale of this massager. You can get this amazing massager off 33% OFF, by clicking here. 

 

Solution 6: Treat Your Back Pain Without Prescription Medication
I made this last as if the above does not work, you may be like I need to take something for the pain. But you need to be careful. Personally, I am not a fan of pain pills, steroids, or any pharmaceutical drugs, for that matter. And this is the solution from most orthopedics and PCPs; let's put a band-aid on it with a drug that can cause you to gain weight or worse yet, something that can be addictive. Bottom line, I DO NOT WANT A BAND-AID, I want a safer solution. Something that is not harmful that can help relieve inflammation and Turmeric can do just that as well as Black Seed Oil. Studies have shown that both of these adaptogens have tremendous anti-inflammatory powers and can be a great solution to alleviate back pain from working at home.