Your Job Could Be Causing Your Headaches: Adelaide Physio

Your Job Could Be Causing Your Headaches

And not just from Stress! There are many different causes for headaches.

Some of us suffer from headaches which are related to neck tension. For those that find their headaches come on while they are at work or sitting at a desk, this could be due to the neck tension.

Headaches caused by Neck Tension can be a result of:

• Poor Posture
• Poor Workstation Setup
• Stress-related Muscle Tension
• Lack of Mobility throughout your day

It is important first to address the cause of the headache. Your physiotherapist can help differentiate whether this may be neck related by doing a thorough assessment. From here, your physiotherapist can help provide relief of headaches through manual therapy and provide you with advise/education to avoid increasing neck tension.

Some of the advise/education can include:

• Correct posture
• Appropriate way to set up your workstation
• Exercises to perform to reduce muscle tension

Often we can find ourselves adapting a poor sitting posture when we are sitting at the computer.

Some characteristics of a poor sitting posture that causes increased neck tension are:

• Slumped/rounded mid back
• Forward head posture (sticking your chin out in front)
• Rounded shoulders
• Sitting on an angle to the monitor or with head turned to one side (e.g. with a corner desk)

Some general guidelines for how to set up your work desk to promote a better sitting posture are:

• Have the keyboard and mouse close to you, so that only your wrists are resting on the desk and not so much your forearms. This will help reduce rounding shoulders and slumped posture.
• The monitor should also be of a distance that allows best focus, as to avoid stretching head out forward to get better focus
• The top of the monitor should be approximately at eye level
• Adjust chair height and have items (i.e. keyboards, mouse) close so that elbow is relaxed at a right angle
• Position the keyboard, mouse and monitor directly in front of you to avoid twisting or turning your neck for an extended period of time.

It is also important to frequently get up and move around. Approximately every 20 minutes would be most ideal.

This could involve just walking for couple minutes to get a drink or to go to the printer.

Your physiotherapist can also recommend some exercises to perform at your desk instead to promote mobility.

If Headaches are causing you Pain, book an appointment with myPhysioSA and our Physiotherapists can offer treatment and advise to help ease your Neck Tension.