Most of us have a busy office routine where we have to spend most of the day sitting at our desks. While it is important to work, sitting all day at a desk can cause serious back and neck pain problems. When it comes to the back and neck, these parts of the body take a lot of tension and stress throughout. But these are also important to keep you functional and focused.
This pain can press and cause other problems like injury during the next workout and serious irritation. This can put you off focus too. Often the pain has something to do with the muscular-skeletal system, which happens to be a chiropractor’s specialty. Choosing the right chiropractor is an important choice to make for better pain management. Chiropractor Yuba City is just one search term you might use to find the right chiropractor for you, but you can search any city to find one near you too.
Other than that, sometimes after working out or a martial art class, your back can feel a little stiff. Stretching and yoga can help that pain go away and get you back on the track. If you are also facing back and neck pain, we have good news. Follow these stretches to get rid of it. The best thing is that you can make it a part of your post workout, cool down your routine, and do it while wearing your workout clothes or spats pants. You can buy women’s training spats, and other martial art gear and apparel from Elite Sports.
Why It’s Important
Naturally the back is stiff because of the spine and ribs all over it on each side. So, it also gets stiff easily because of the anatomy over the area. Stretching and yoga can help recirculate blood better into that area which helps the pain giving muscles required nutrients. If you haven’t noticed your back and shoulders are involved in almost every workout and training you do. Sitting on a chair for a few hours straight also involves the neck with them.
Reduce injury risk and function better
Ignoring this pain or not getting rid of the pain properly increases the risk of injury, strains, and puts a negative impact on whatever we want to do, whether it be work or workout. If you workout or train for martial arts regularly, then make stretching a part of your warm up and cool down routine. This will help get rid of the pain better and get you ready for what’s next. In addition you will be able to focus better.
If working out or training is not a part of your daily plan, then you can take some time to do stretches after waking up and before sleeping at night. This will help you be more focused on the work and get better sleep.
Proper warm up is important to get the body part moving which is involved in whatever type of movement you will be doing. For better understanding, slouch far down and try reaching up with arms. You won’t be able to make it up far, but when you do the same with upright posture you can definitely reach your father. This is how much difference can get rid of the pain and make the body functional.
Breathe better
Besides your physical fitness and function, having such pain can also affect you in other ways. Breathing is an important thing whether you do any activity or not. But it is more important you do exercise, martial arts training, sports, or other alike physical activities. The ribs are like an extension or part of the back connected to the spine. Every time you breathe they expand or contract relative to the spine and each other.
Having a stiff back can also cause irritation and problem breathing. Thus, doing back stretches you can ease up your breathing too because it restores the back to its natural and free motion. In addition, then you will be able to maintain better posture. Get started with this routine, all you need to have are just a few minutes and a place to stretch. Following are a few stretches you can follow.
Imitating child pose
Child pose is great for many things, getting a relieve from the back pain included. This is also one of the main yoga poses. Imitating the childlike pose will get your upper and lower back a relief from the pain. Lie down straight with your hands above the head. Bend your legs and get them as wide apart as you can keep the toes together. Now sit straight, folding your legs and make sure your back is not attached forward or backward, also keep your neck straight. Bow down getting the torso between the legs and extend your hands straight forward. This should make the glutes, ankles, neck, and back stretch.
Rotating and tilting the neck
Neck stiffness mostly comes from staring at a screen for long periods of time like work sitting at a desk or using the phone. Neck stretches can help get rid of the pain. To start, sit or stand comfortably with your arms and shoulders relaxed and look straight ahead. Slowly tile your head up at 90 degree angle then get back to staring straight. Then move on to looking down again about at 90 degree angle.
While straight, you can shrug your shoulder in clockwise and anticlockwise rotation. Remember not to push the neck too much and hold every position for a few seconds before moving on to the next.
Another stretch is to tilt your neck to either side one by one. To start, stand or straight with shoulders relaxed and arms hanging down. Now tile your head to either side until your ear is right above the shoulder. Hold the position for 10 to 20 seconds, then get back to the initial position and repeat tilting to the other side. Make sure your shoulder is not rising or your chin is not drooping to the shoulder.
Elbow touching
Put the left palm on the left and right one on the right shoulder, do not press, shoulder down and try to touch the elbows behind your back. Hold it there for a few seconds as far as you can go and then touch them in front of the position. This will release the tension in your entire upper back. Feel the stretch or mild burning through the muscles.
Chair stretch yoga
This stretch will help relieve the back pain many of us have due to elongated sitting or standing. Get a chair and sit straight with good posture. Slide towards the front a little to get some space behind you. Now twist your torso to the side keeping the feet strongly planted. Usually you would do this by placing your hands on your neck.
But if that is not possible, hold that armrest where you will be turning with both hands and then turn. Turn to almost 90 degrees but it is okay if you cannot go that far. Hold the position for a few seconds, return to the initial position and repeat with the other side.
If any pain persists or is too much to handle, do not ignore it and get medical attention. Sleep on a soft mattress, keep your neck straight or try sleeping without a pillow, keep your posture straight at work and try to get up now and then.