Got neck and back pain? Break up your work day with these 5 exercises for relief

After staring at the computer screen for hours, the body often gives us clues that it is stressed: annoying neck and back pain.

To solve the problem, you may have received advice to focus on posture or ergonomics, but exercise research points to another strategy—taking short movements throughout the day to release tension and stress in the body.

“As a society, the assumption is that we get pain from poor posture and bending over,” says Kieran O’Sullivan, an associate professor of physiotherapy at the University of Limerick’s School of Allied Health in Ireland. “But [the issue] it’s not as neat and tidy as we thought. We have tried all these fixes [with ergonomics] and probably didn’t fix the problem. I think it has more to do with the need for a break from the workday with… movement”.

Here’s how researchers think quick bursts of movement — sometimes called exercise “snacks” — can help prevent soreness. When the brain senses physical or emotional stress, the body releases hormones that prompt the muscles to become protective and tight. Exercise counteracts stress by increasing blood flow to muscles, tendons and ligaments and by delivering nutrients to the joints and discs of the spine.

Fitness specialists at NASA, an agency where people work in high-stress sedentary positions, developed a set of 20 one-minute pain-preventing exercises that anyone can do at their desk. We’ve picked five here for you to try.

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Cha Pornea for NPR

Standing plank: Place your forearms on the table, hands touching. Extend your legs with your toes on the floor. Tighten the abdominal muscles. Keep a straight line from head to toe without raising or sinking your hips. Hold for 10-15 seconds. Rest and repeat.

Movement is also hydrating for connective tissue and joints, reversing the stiffness that comes with excessive sitting, says Dr. Helene Langevin, director of the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, which recently funded more than a half-dozen studies on connective tissue and pain.

“Taking small breaks and moving throughout the day…prevents your body from ‘sticking,'” says Langevin.

Foods on the go can also have broader health benefits. Short, gentle to vigorous movements, repeated several times a day, can improve cardiovascular health, stop muscle wasting, reduce all-cause mortality and reduce stress, exercise and physiology experts say. cited a growing number of medical studies.

Stretch, bend or even get nervous

Any type of movement works—from yoga poses to briskly walking across the room or running up a flight of stairs.

NASA’s program included sit-ups, calf raises, push-ups, standing leg curls, and neck, shoulder, and back stretches.

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Cha Pornea for NPR

Sit and stand on a chair: Stand in front of a chair with your feet shoulder-width apart. Sit down as if you are sitting on the chair, but without touching it. Keep a straight back, keeping the knees over the feet, weight on the heels. Straighten your legs to return to the starting position. Repeat 10-15 times.

“Your body is always talking to you,” said Marceleus M. Venable, a personal trainer in Washington, DC. and co-author of the NASA exercise program. “Your hands are cramping, your hips and neck are hurting… it’s saying, ‘Hey, can you lay me down?’

No one set of exercises works for every body. Instead, people should focus on movements that challenge areas of weakness, strengthen multiple body parts at once, and that they enjoy, says Katy Bowman, a Carlsborg, Wash., biomechanist. and author of the book Move Your DNA.

“It’s not as simple as everyone with back pain doing these four [abdominal] move,” says Bowman. “It’s like diet food. Just as you need a spectrum of dietary nutrients, you need a spectrum of movements that make the body strong from head to toe.”

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Cha Pornea for NPR

Seated Ceiling Stretch: Bring your hands together above your head with your palms facing up toward the ceiling. Push your arms up, stretching up. Hold this stretch for 10-15 seconds while breathing deeply. Do at least two sets.

Bowman advises setting a timer for every half hour or hour, and then doing whatever you can to change your body position. Make movements that will change the loads placed on the back and muscles. For example, if you’ve been holding your hands on the keyboard for a while, take a minute to reach your arms above your head and stretch. Then stand up and take your spine through its range of motion: forwards and backwards, side to side and left to right rotations.

“I’m a big advocate of frustration,” she says. “Keep repositioning yourself – you can’t sit and not move for hours a day and expect your body to be happy with that.”

Active rest can help with pain

A large-scale study of Denmark’s workforce health promotion programs found that those who took activity breaks, compared to those who did nothing, were less likely to need multiple sick days from illness and pain.

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Cha Pornea for NPR

Shoulder drop fly: Sit on the edge of your chair and lean forward, keeping your lower back naturally arched. Your palms should be facing each other. Raise your arms straight out by your sides. Pause and then slowly return to the starting position. Repeat the exercise 15 times.

Many of the workers in the study, including office workers, used elastic resistance bands for 10-minute breaks, three times a week. They did exercises such as placing bands between hands, spreading their arms and squeezing their shoulders together. Employees can take breaks using the bands at their desk or gather with colleagues to exercise together.

Stretching resistance bands with your hands can counteract the bending and forward movement of the neck and shoulders when working at the computer. It can also help with muscle fatigue from sitting at a desk for long periods by strengthening back muscles, says Lars L. Andersen, professor of musculoskeletal disorders at Denmark’s National Research Center for the Work Environment and lead author of the study.

The study showed that “active rest is good for the body and mind and helps with pain,” says Andersen.

The NIH’s Langevin is a fan of using yoga stretches for movement foods because they help maintain connective tissue flexibility. The gentle movements from the practice can also encourage the body to relax and reduce the risk of worsening back pain.

In July 2020, the NIH released a video of Langevin demonstrating some of the movements she recommends, including taking one arm in a large gentle circle, stretching the neck in the opposite direction, and then repeating the movement in the direction opposite, and on the opposite side.

Even if you feel sore, gentle movements can be soothing. “For musculoskeletal pain in general, movement is a really good thing,” she says.

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Cha Pornea for NPR

Seated chest and back stretch: Clasp your hands behind your back. Push your chest out and lift your chin. Hold for 10-15 seconds, breathing deeply. Next, extend your arms straight out in front of you, palms facing down. Lower your head in line with your arms and round your back as you look down. Hold for 10-15 seconds, breathing deeply. Do at least two sets.

The exercises and captions included are adapted from NASA’s DeskFit program, created by the NASA Fitness Center team of Tanya Johnson, Marceleus Venable, and Kimber Williams.

Bara Vaida is a Washington, DC-based freelance healthcare journalist and yoga teacher.

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