When you come home from work do you always have neck and or shoulder Pain?Work related neck and shoulder pain are frequent problems that are reported in the work place. Haughiee found out that “forward head posture is associated with neck and shoulder pain.” This type of pain is nagging and one that will not leave unless taken medication or you stretch your neck out before you begin to do any type of work. Another problem found by Chiu “is that approximately 60% of individuals who have neck pain also have forward head posture. Forward head posture is when your cervical spine is in a straight line causing your head to stick out farther than your body.
There are several variables that have been identified as risk factors for the development of shoulder pain and includes but not limited to, highly abnormal sustained posture of the cervical spine, repetitive use of the arm, and types of work that involve the arm raising above the head. The most common people with this type of pain are construction workers, assembly line workers, people who sit in a desk all day with poor posture and any type of work that involves overhead lifting in the sagittal plan.
Not solving these types of problems in a timely manner can be very bad for one’s health especially when it involves the spine. If you continue to display forward head posture than your neck bones do not stop rubbing against each other and when this happens you will begin to get ossified vertebrae in the neck. This is a very dangerous thing because you have many nerves, blood vessels and other important things in that region and with ossified bones you can damage this part of your body, leading to Alzheimer’s and similar diseases that can cause you to be in a nursing home or hospitalized for the rest of your life.
To prevent your bones from ossifying, and shoulder pain with abnormal neck posture you should practice a good posture at all times of your life. Keeping this neutral position during arm movements and functional activities you are training your muscles, ligaments, and bones on where they are supposed to be. With your neck in the correct posture all of your other joints and pains will either be going away or correcting themselves.
There are many ways to make sure you practice good posture to prevent the types of pains listed above. The first way which will help tremendously his making sure you put your rear view mirror in place when you are sitting straight up. This will remind you while you drive to not slouch so you can always check your surroundings. Another way to practice good posture is not to cross your legs at any moment when you are sitting down. When you cross your legs you add more pressure and weight to your spine than its use to. This will cause pain to go up from your lower back to your shoulder area. The last easy thing to do to help correct your posture is to make sure everything you do whether its texting or using any type of device. Make sure it is eye level. Doing this will make sure you do not lean your head forward at any moment which is the leading causes forward head posture.