Almost always when we talk about injuries we refer to the sports field : injuries that you can suffer if you are a runner, if you swim or even practicing activities that seem more “calm” such as Yoga .

But we are not exempt from suffering injuries in our day to day life: in our home or, above all, in our workplace, where we spend at least eight hours a day. Below we tell you which are the most frequent injuries in the offices and how you can prevent them to take care of your health.

Back pain from spending many hours (bad) sitting

The most classic of all the pains that afflict office workers is usually back pain, and is that spending eight hours a day sitting can take its toll. It is not only that we spend a lot of time in a chair, but also, most of that time we are sitting badly or placed in a bad position.

The lumbago , the muscle spasms and neck pain are the most common pain among people who spend (and bad sitting) hours sitting in front of a screen. The bad positioning of our body, chairs, screens and keyboards often leads to bad postures of the shoulders and neck, which can sometimes lead to cervical osteoarthritis.

The first step to prevent back pain from bad posture is, as expected, to sit correctly : adjust our chair so that the knees form a 90 degree angle by resting the feet on the floor (both feet : it is not recommended to spend a lot of time with crossed legs), to take advantage of the whole seat of the chair to sit (not to do it alone on the edge of it) and to support the back on the back of the chair are the three basic ones that we can not lose sight to improve our position.

Get up from the chair from time to time to move your legs a little (go to the bathroom, to the kitchen to refill your bottle of water, go to the site of that partner with whom you have to talk instead of sending an e-mail, you can even set an alarm to remind you to get up ) or perform some stretching in our own workplace will also help us to be more aware of our position and improve it.

Placing the computer screen at eye level will also prevent us from having to tilt the head down at the time of work, thus avoiding the consequent neck pain due to the forced posture.

Wrists on the wrists: maybe it’s time to change the mouse

Another of the most common injuries in the offices is that of carpal tunnel syndrome , generally due to the continued use of the computer mouse. If after a long period of time working with the computer mouse you feel tingling at the fingertips or weakness in the wrists, it is possible that it is about this syndrome.

The carpal tunnel syndrome occurs due to a trapping of the median nerve , in the area of ​​the wrist, usually due to the widening of the tendons that are in that part of the forearm. By having less space, the median nerve is compressed, giving rise to that characteristic but annoying tickling.

The treatment for this type of ailment , after being evaluated by a medical professional, goes through physiotherapy, with manual therapy techniques , and surgery in some cases. To prevent the onset of carpal tunnel syndrome we can use different ergonomic devices that can help us improve posture while we work.

On the one hand we have the ergonomic mouse pads and keyboards , with soft pads on which the wrists rest and that, in this way, avoid the inflammation of the tendons and the compression of the nerve. We can also choose to use a trackball mouse , which allows us to move around the screen by sliding the thumb over the ball, the place to move the forearm.

Another of the common pains in the offices related to wrists and forearms can be the one that derives from the entrapment of the ulnar nerve : in this case the entrapment of the nerve occurs in the ulnar canal, in the area of ​​the elbow, and it courses with tingling in the forearm. The entrapment of the ulnar nerve can occur by resting the elbow on hard surfaces for a long period of time, which is common in people working with computers or students.