It so happened that a couple of days back, I woke up with a severe pain in my neck that made it impossible for me to get on with my daily routine. My first thought was that this must be the result of the weird acrobatics that I do in my sleep. And like most people, I tried to self-medicate with heat compress and stretching exercises. It was only when the pain exceeded my endurance that I decided to seek the help of a medical professional. He explained to me that my sedentary lifestyle and seating posture had been putting incredible strain on my neck which had resulted in its muscles getting stiff and causing me discomfort.
If you too have had such experiences in past, or are frequently waking up in the morning with mysterious pains, don’t dismiss it too lightly. And it isn’t just because you are getting older. I took my personal experience as an opportunity to write down and enlighten you about these mysterious pains and what can be done to prevent them. Here you go:
Lower Back Pain
If you work a nine-to-five desk job, you don’t need me to tell you how common this problem is for those of us who spend the majority of our days hunched over our desks. But I am pretty sure, you would be very interested to know what causes it.
Causes:
- A sedentary lifestyle, which involves sitting on a desk for long hours without any breaks. Also, incorrect sleeping and sitting postures.
- A sudden weight gain could also put unexpected, increased pressure on your spine which can result in back pain.
- If you experience it while going about daily tasks such as walking or lifting something, it can also be a signal of weak posterior muscles (1).
Prevention:
There are a number of ways by which you can prevent it from flaring up and some of them are:
- By doing stretches that involve gluteal muscles, the muscles of the lower back, and hamstring.
- You can also try taking breaks from sitting at your desk for too long and using that break to move about a little.
- You can also try these exercises:
- Modified clamshell
- Bridging
- Oblique crunches
- Single leg calf raises (2)
Cure:
If you have been facing the issue of lower back pain consistently and haven’t gotten any relief from using the OTC products and following the exercises, we would suggest that you consult a doctor and try to find the root cause (whether it’s due to weak muscles, incorrect posture or a result of some injury), and seek treatment accordingly. Most of these are curable and can be cured with 2–3 months of consistent physical therapy.
Neck Pain
Coming to another crucial joint, the neck joint. Whether it’s because we constantly look down at our cell phones or because we are always peering at our desktop/laptop screens, our necks are often under tremendous strain. This is also not helped by the fact that most of us have a bad posture. So, it’s no surprise that neck pain is another common complaint.
Causes:
- Incorrect sitting and sleeping postures; long hours spent peering down at the screens.
- It can also occur if you are using the wrong pillow or if you have weak neck or upper back muscles.
- Low levels of vitamins D3 and B12 can also be a factor (3), (4).
Prevention:
You can prevent neck pain from debilitating you by following the tips given below.
- Try to do neck and back stretches at work every 45 minutes (5).
- Use a pillow, which is adequately thick and try to sleep in a correct position so as to prevent stiffness and pain.
- Do exercises such as upper trapezius stretches, thoracic rotations to make your neck joint strong (it’s advisable that you practice them in the presence of a licensed professional) (6).
Cure:
Though neck pain is seldom a sign of anything serious, if it occurs randomly and without any apparent cause, and doesn’t alleviate even with physiotherapy and other treatments, it might be a sign of a bone disorder, a serious injury to the nerves, cancer or even, rheumatoid arthritis (7). In this case, it would be best that you follow up with a certified expert to seek the correct course of treatment. Otherwise, it should be treatable with physical therapy and prescription drugs. However, we would suggest that you consult a doctor to identify its root cause so as to prevent it from becoming chronic.
Hopefully, this detailed article helped you identify the cause of those pains which appear overnight mysteriously and wreck your day at work. However, if you truly want to avoid these niggling issues, we suggest you incorporate a little bit of physical activity into your lifestyle to make sure that your joints are well-oiled and not strained unnecessarily.
If you have any other information about neck or lower back pain, share it with us in the comments section.
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