By Jenn Landry RMT

Many of us spend a significant amount of our day working at a desk, and most of those who work in this way would be guilty of exhibiting some degree of poor desk posture! Slouching puts your body in a compromised position, placing stress on many joints, ligaments, and muscles.

The most common negative effect related to poor desk posture is back pain. However, there are a number of other common ailments that many people wouldn’t attribute to poor posture. For example:

• Headaches. 
• Uneven muscle tension.
• Stiffness.
• Poor circulation.
• Limited range of motion.
• Jaw pain.
• Numbness/tingling in the shoulders, arms, wrists, or fingers.
• Hindered digestion/breathing.

Below is a very simple and effective homecare exercise that you can perform each day to prevent or help reverse uneven muscle tension related to poor desk posture.

Back Wall Strengthening:

• Lean your back, head, and buttocks against a wall.
• Bend your elbows to about 90 degrees & press your arms (back) into the wall. Your palms sure be forward and at shoulder level.
• Keep the back of your hand against the wall and slide your arms upward. Try not to raise your shoulders. During this movement try to squeeze your shoulder blades together and downward.
• This movement should be slow and controlled. Once your arms are raised above your head, slowly lower them to the starting position and repeat.
• Repeat 10 times (if possible) - work your way up to 20 times. It’s more effective to do less repetitions with accurate posture, rather then doing multiple with raised/rounded shoulders.

In addition to education about stretching and strengthening exercises, registered massage therapy can help reduce muscle tension that can be holding the body in a prolonged compromised position. Massage can also reduce pain/stiffness, increase blood circulation, increase range of motion, reduce numbness/tingling, promote digestion, and review correct breathing techniques.