Neck Pain from Office Work? Two Quick-Relief Things To Do before Coming In

In the age of office work, neck pain (and many other types of pains) aren’t that unfamiliar to us anymore. While cases vary from person to person, many of us with deskbound jobs face very similar symptoms when it comes to neck pains.

In these cases, the long hours in front of a computer, laptop, or other types of screens may lead to neck pain. While not always due to direct stress on the neck, shoulder stress and back stress may pull on the muscles of the neck and thus indirectly cause aches in the general area; this is why neck pain, shoulder aches, and back pain all frequently go hand in hand!

So you’ve scheduled a trip to our Pain Relief Clinic for neck pain treatment in Singapore, but there are a few days in between and you don’t know if you can bear the full and aching pain. Here are a few ways to relieve that pain without generating long-term harms and without the use of medication! The techniques may work for some, and may not work for others based on personal reasons and context – it is always best to speak with our doctors to get an appropriate idea of how best to tackle your neck pain!

Stretching Techniques

Muscle pains are often caused by unreleased tension, especially when accumulated over immense amounts of time. For those of us who are frequently on-the-go, slow stretching exercises to intentionally loosen the tension may help in reducing pain temporarily.

Instead of aimlessly pressing down or pulling on the areas of pain in the hopes that something will work, here are a few targeted techniques that may help in neck muscle pain relief, drawn from various practices over the years.

Exercise 1:

While sitting up, slowly turn your head to the right (but not until you feel the neck pain), then bring it back to the centre. Repeat a total of three times. Repeat three times again with the left side.

Exercise 2:

Lace your hands in front of you, lay the palms of your laced hands flat on your chest, and slowly, deliberately turn your upper body to the right. Intentionally relax and stretch your shoulders and neck, and any tension in your jaw. Repeat three times on each side.

Exercise 3:

While sitting up straight, shake out your hands and arms, and rest your hands on your thighs. Slowly, raise your right shoulder as far as it can go, as though trying to touch your right ear. Do not move your head! Your shoulder does not actually need to touch the ear.

Hole your shoulder in the raised position for 10-15 seconds, then lower it back down. Repeat twice more for the right, then repeat the whole process three times for the left side.

Finally, raise both of your shoulders together in the same manner, for a total of three times as well.

As with the others, do intentionally try to release any tension in your shoulders and neck if you know that you are tensing up. Smooth out your brows, relax your jaw, and shake out your limbs.

Massages

Contrary to the singular category, there are a huge variety of massages: Balinese, Thai, Swedish – everything. While most massage parlours provide feel-good services, few target pain areas directly and even when they do, fail to tackle them deeply enough.

We turn instead to even more ancient techniques that still survive to this day and serve as an addendum to neck pain treatment in Singapore on top of neck pain clinics: tui na massages.

Tui na specialists take years to learn and master their work, and many are found in Chinatown in Singapore, near the acupuncture centres. While treatment effectiveness still varies from person to person, tui na massages focuses heavily on affected areas only rather than a general feel-good concept. To be clear, these massages should be carried out by specialists who do not offer anything else, and not part of a regular massage parlour. Other similar options include shiatsu and reflexology; the same restrictions apply in ensuring that you are working with a proper professional rather than badly-trained employees!

These measures tackle musculoskeletal problems and are generally uninvasive. Few clients frequently complain of adverse effects from professional treatments, and their work should be able to address your neck pain for some time!

In Summary:

Neck pain is a tough problem to tackle, a constant ache that may prove a distraction to daily life. Before coming into your neck pain clinic appointment, try these two methods to relieve your pain temporarily!

Stretching slowly and deliberately helps release the tension in your shoulders (and therefore back), and taking on tui na, shiatsu, or reflexology massages may help as well. After your visit to our clinic, speak with our doctor on whether these treatments have worked for you (temporarily or over the longer term) and whether you would like to incorporate them into your general pain treatment routine!