How to Prevent and Relieve Back Pain from Desk Work

The Relationship Between Desk Work and Back Pain

In the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions, lower back pain continues to rank first among the symptoms people are aware of, for both men and women. In other words, the physical complaint reported most often in Japan is lower back pain. Long hours in a seated posture in particular increase the burden on the lower back, which means desk workers work in a way that makes it hard to break ties with back pain.

Sitting is said to place roughly 1.4 times the load on the lumbar spine compared with standing. In a forward-leaning posture it rises to about 1.85 times. For desk workers who stay seated for more than eight hours a day, back pain is a hard problem to escape. The reason sitting is bad for the lower back is that standing spreads your body weight across both feet, while sitting concentrates it in the lumbar spine.

How Back Pain Works

A fair share of back pain is "non-specific low back pain", where imaging finds no clear cause. It used to be explained that most back pain fell into this category, but later revisions of the clinical practice guideline reorganized the picture: by building up careful history-taking and examination, the source of the pain can be narrowed down to some degree. Even so, one thing has not changed, which is that a finding visible on an image is not necessarily the cause of the pain. Since the cause cannot be pinned to a single item, it pays to look at several factors at once, such as everyday posture and the state of your muscles.

Muscle Tension and Poor Circulation

Holding the same posture for a long time tightens the muscles around the lower back and worsens blood flow. When your lower back feels heavy as you stand up after two hours at the desk, for instance, that is muscle tension and poor circulation stacked on top of each other. Reduced blood flow lowers the oxygen supply to the muscles and lets fatigue byproducts build up. That is what causes the stiffness and the pain.

Load on the Intervertebral Discs

The intervertebral discs act as cushions between the bones of the spine. A seated posture increases the pressure on them, and over long periods the risk of disc degeneration and protrusion (herniation) rises.

Loss of Core Strength

A life spent sitting weakens the trunk muscles that support the lower back. Once the core is weak, the load on the lumbar spine grows further and you fall into the vicious circle of back pain.

Improving How You Sit

The Basics of Sitting Properly

Sit deep in the chair and let the backrest carry your lower back. Plant the soles of your feet firmly on the floor and bend your knees to 90 degrees. There is value in being mindful of standing your pelvis upright and taking care not to let your back round.

Break Up the Time You Spend Sitting

Making it a habit to stand up once every 30 minutes is effective. Simply inserting a short break, standing up and walking a little, doing a stretch, or going to fetch water, chops up the stretch of time during which the load keeps landing on your lower back.

Stretches for Preventing Back Pain

Cat and Cow Stretch

From all fours, alternate between rounding your back (cat) and arching it (cow). This raises the flexibility of the spine and loosens the muscles around the lower back. Do 10 repetitions in the morning and 10 at night.

Hamstring Stretch

When the hamstrings at the back of the thigh are tight, the pelvis tilts backward and the load lands on the lumbar spine. Sitting on a chair, extending one leg in front of you and folding your upper body toward your toes is an effective stretch.

Iliopsoas Stretch

Stretch the iliopsoas (the muscle at the front of the hip joint), which shortens easily when you sit for long stretches. Put one knee on the floor, bring the other foot forward and lengthen the front of the hip joint. Hold for 30 seconds on each side.

Reviewing Your Work Setup

Adjust the chair height so that the soles of your feet rest firmly on the floor and your knees come to 90 degrees. For the desk, the ideal height puts your elbows at 90 degrees. Placing the monitor at eye level, at a position where you do not have to push your neck forward, can be expected to bring improvement.

For back pain, using back support products (a cushion for the lower back) is also effective. Slipping a cushion between the backrest and your lower back lets you keep the natural curve of the lumbar spine. Investing in an ergonomic chair is also worth considering as long-term prevention.

Cases Where You Should Consult a Medical Institution

If any of the following apply, seeing a doctor is recommended rather than handling it yourself: back pain accompanied by numbness or pain in the legs, pain that continues even at rest, cases with difficulty urinating, and cases with a fever. These can point to conditions that need specialist treatment, such as a herniated disc or lumbar spinal stenosis.

With back pain, prevention is the most cost-effective measure. Try adopting just one posture habit starting today.

Key Points of This Article

• Know that imaging cannot pin down the cause of much back pain
• Know the concrete steps for improving how you sit
• Grasp the knack of the stretches that prevent back pain
• Know what to do about muscle tension and poor circulation

Summary - Prevention Is the Best Treatment

With back pain, putting your effort into prevention is far more effective than dealing with it after it appears. Simply keeping three things in mind, sitting properly, stretching regularly and setting up an appropriate work environment, holds the risk of back pain down considerably. Start by standing up once every 30 minutes, from today.