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If your desk area consists of a sofa cushion, and low coffee table, then we’re taking a stab in the dark and guessing you’ve converted your living room into an office. And while that’s all fun and games, working from home can actually be quite stressful on your muscles and joints – despite the extended periods sitting down! In this post, we discuss the ways in which you can stay healthy and active while working from home. So, let’s adjust the couch seat, make a fresh brew, and get stuck in!

It’s been a few weeks and you’re still getting around to sorting your desk space. The kids have taken over the living room and your partner has decided the spare room is now an ‘activity’ space. Your laptop has had more coffee spilled on it than the kitchen counter, and you’ve not changed your jeans for days. How in the world can you work from home while maintaining your health and sanity in those conditions? Well, we’re here to help. Take a look at our top tips for working from home:

1. Make Your Desk Your Own

Let’s be honest… the couch just isn’t cutting it anymore. Sharing it with the kids, the spouse, and the dog Charlie, makes for a less than optimum working environment. It’s time to move. Claim the dining room table and make it your own. The key to accomplishing quality work from home is to have a space designated entirely to completing your tasks. You may lose a dining room table, but dinner can still be shared out on the patio or in the kitchen. Small changes like this can actually have a large effect on the quality of the work you produce and… yes, you guessed it, your physical health, too.

2. Desk Ergonomics

Which brings us to the next point: how comfortable and physically supportive your desk space is. After having set up your dining room desk, it’s time to take a good look at your seat and table. First of all, ask yourself whether your seat is supportive enough for your spine. If not, invest in a good cushion or desk chair. After that, check the height of the table. Ideally, the height of the table should allow for your computer screen to reach eye-level, consequently ensuring that you have no need to stare down constantly – doing so would cause neck pain. It may help to use a bigger screen in order to achieve optimum height. Once finished, you should be able to sit comfortably. Ideally, you’ll be able to see the screen without straining, thus avoiding negatively affecting your posture. But hey… don’t get too comfortable, though, it’s time to move!

3. Move, Move, Move

Now, we know you’ve just made your desk chair perfectly comfortable – plush leather, flashing lights, and a built-in sound system – but the truth is, you can’t stay sitting in it for hours at a time! Getting up regularly to drink water, stretch, and have a little stroll around the house is actually very beneficial for muscle and bone health. Why not set a reminder on your phone to get up every 20 minutes or so – that way, you are maintaining mobility and staving off any stiffness or pain down the line. Don’t allow your body to get used to a sedentary pose – activate the muscles in order to remain spritely, energetic, and most importantly of all: pain free.

4. Snacking

Time to get to what you really want to talk about… snacks. No, we don’t mean Hershey’s and MnM’s. While having a chocolate bar every now and again isn’t a problem, having too many of them during the day will actually cause you to doze off at your desk! Avoid the sugar highs (and lows) and reach for some fruits or nuts instead. Regular, healthy snacking will mean your body stays fueled and you stay out of the fridge!

5. Yoga 

Namaste! Sometimes it’s just great to get stretching. Incorporating yoga into your daily routine is a wonderful way of getting your muscles moving and flexing, thereby ensuring that you stay mobile and active during the day. Yoga is also fantastic at energizing the mind and body and, if done regularly, will go a long way to staving off injury as you get older. I’m sure you’ve heard that the first step to becoming truly flexible is just getting on that mat… so, what are you waiting for? 

6. Home Workouts

If you love the gym, but just can’t make it out there while working from home, why not try some home workouts? There are some great live sessions on YouTube and you can even join local groups if that’s what you prefer. Being active and mobile really is the best way of staying at the top of your health and fitness game, and, if you’re not willing to compromise on your exercise regime, doing some cardio via a home workout is a great option.

All of the above are fantastic ways of keeping both healthy and sane while you’re working from home. Some days are easier than others, though, and not knowing all of the answers is normal. If you’re not sure where to start, don’t know what your correct desk-posture ought to be, or just feel unable to get into the swing of things while working from home, we invite you to contact one of our dedicated physical therapists today. Physical therapy will help you become active and mobile while you work from home, thereby ensuring that you’re able to keep up with your active lifestyle and pain free life. In addition, if you feel the time on the sofa has left you feeling achy, give us a call – we’ll help you get back to health in no time. 

So, there you have it. Six great tips for working from home. Don’t let home-based work leave you feeling like you’ve just returned from a Saturday at Walmart – let us help you get mobile, active, fit, healthy, and pain free during this time. Call us today; we’re here to help!

Remember how you used to be terrified of needles as a child? How thinking about the glinting needles probably helped you forget you were sick at all? Yes, we all know that feeling and remember it well. So, what changed? As we grew up, became braver, and started listening to our bodies a little less, our distrust of needles seems to have dwindled. Now, we run to the doctor for all manner of injections, and while vitamin B shots and flu jabs are at the lower risk end of the spectrum, many injections pose a very large, very scary risk to our health and wellbeing. 

Why, then, do we do subject ourselves to the needle-point? For many of us the answer is simple: we live with pain and just cannot do it anymore. Injections, on the advice of our doctors, promise a pain-free life with little to no wait. Injections don’t need marketing – they market themselves; if we’re in pain, we’ll do anything. The truth is, though, none of the side effects get discussed much, and all too often the advantages of shots are blown out of proportion. The truth is, not only do injections fail to produce any sort of permanent pain-free lifestyle, they go hand-in-hand with a whole bunch of negative aftereffects, some short term and others, sadly, long-term. If you’re reading this and thinking injections may be your only option, don’t fear – we’re here to spill the beans on shots, their consequences, and what other safe, long-term solutions you have at your disposal instead! 

So, let’s talk about what injections really do and what you need to know before getting them. Firstly, injections are designed to allow chemicals to enter your bloodstream rapidly, thereby enabling pain-relief. The problem with this is that the injections themselves just cannot target the root source of the problem – they may be able to mask it for a while, at a push for a few months, perhaps, but they cannot eradicate it. Thus, the pain will always return. 

And not only that. While the injections may serve a short-term purpose, they nevertheless set the tone for more dangerous issues to arise. For example, while you might not feel pain shortly after the injection – and you may be on Cloud 9 at this point– the reality is that you may actually be exacerbating the issue further, thereby ensuring that the discomfort returns tenfold once the effects of the injections wear off. In addition, the chemicals/painkillers being injected severely affect your health in many instances. Not only can they be addictive, but by they may actually affect your metabolism, muscle health, and immune system, consequently inviting numerous other health problems to become part of your life. 

In fact, to illustrate this point clearly, I want you to think of a specific area you may be injected in. This could be your calf or shoulder, for example. Once the needle enters your bloodstream, the physical area in which it was inserted is obviously disrupted and damaged. Yet, what does the actual syringe solution do to the tissues? In some instances, it may break them down, damage muscle function, and even cause blood-related problems. Moreover, if the injection is aimed at your cartilage, it may actually facilitate breakdown of the cartilage itself! Yikes. All-in-all, over time the pain and discomfort you’re dealing with will get a whole lot worse. And if all that’s only in one specific area, imagine what injections are doing to the other parts of your body? 

Is the short-lived pay-off worth that kind of risk? We don’t think so.

If we’re being honest, the attraction of injections lies in the fact that they promise a quick solution to a problem that is consuming your daily joy. Your family time has been disrupted, you’re not able to do the activities you love, and you’re struggling to put on a brave face. Of course an injection sounds like the perfect thing, right? We understand. It’s really, really difficult to live with pain, and it’s equally as hard to stop and think about long-term negative effects when you’re currently dealing with something that’s stealing your happiness. 

What we’re asking you, though, is to stop and think about the ultimate goal. If it is to permanently get rid of the pain and to maintain a pain-free, happy life, then injections simply aren’t the answer. The longer you continue down the syringe-filled path, the harder it will be to get back. 

The good news is, though, there is a way to avoid the needle… physical therapy. In fact, physical therapy is so much more than a simple alternative to injections… it makes the half-empty promises of shots seem paltry compared to it. Why? Because physical therapy gives you the ability to eradicate your pain safely, effectively, and permanently, so that you can access the pain-free life you deserve. 

How? Well, a qualified physical therapist is able to diagnose and treat the root cause of the problem, thereby ensuring that your pain is eradicated rather than just being masked. What makes physical therapy so powerful is that it not only rids you of your pain, but helps you maintain that pain free life! With tailor-made exercises and stretches to accompany your physical therapy sessions, you’ll be equipped with the tools to stave off injury and pain for the long haul! And not only that, but, unlike injections, physical therapy has absolutely no negative side effects: what you’ll get is your joy, family time, social life, and mobility. And no pain!

If you’re currently considering taking injections, or you’ve already started down that path, then we urge you contact us today. We want to help you reach your goals safely, effectively, and with no negative health effects. Living with constant pain is an unbearable burden; we want to give you permanent relief from your afflictions. Forget short-term solutions, veiled promises, and short-lived results: physical therapy will help you live the life you dream of living, permanently. Call us today to chat – we’re looking forward to hearing from you.