Is the way you breathing causing your neck pain? – Part 1

These stretches can either be done as a complete series or individually and most of them can be done at your desk.  Some will ease tension in specific parts of the body whilst others are generally relaxing.  Please remember stretching should always be relaxing and never painful! To get maximum benefit from these stretches you should do them daily and hold each stretch for 15 seconds and repeat twice. Head And Neck

• Head rotation - keeping your head level, slowly turn from side to side.
• Slowly drop your head sideways moving your right ear towards your right shoulder and push down with your left shoulder - repeat on other side.
• Stand with your feet shoulder distance apart; look down towards your right foot (hold for 15 seconds),  dropping left shoulder - repeat the exercise looking towards your left foot.
• Drop the lower jaw and open the mouth wide.

Shoulders

• Shrugging shoulders in a circular movement - forwards and then backwards.
• Raise your shoulders high and let them drap heavily; whilst letting breathing out.
• Clasp hands behind your head, with elbows back - push your chin back.  Hold for 15 seconds.  From this position look down and push your elbows together at the front and hold for a further 15 seconds.
• Clasp you hands and push up towards the ceiling, palms up now look down.
• Sit upright in a chair with a firm seat.  Raise your arms as high as possible and remaining seated drop forward letting your head and arms hang heavily towards the floor.

   

There is a wide range of American start up companies, creating technology solutions to combat the new "sitting disease".  In previous posts I have discussed in the impact of sitting all day

• the impact on muscles (in part 1)
• the general impact on the body (in part 2)
• the impact on your heart and the increase risk of cardiovascular disease (in part 3)
• the increased risk of certain cancers (in part 4)

In my post, "Taking a Break", I explored the reasons for taking a break and looked at the latest research on the length of break you need to take and the frequency.  In my last blog post, "Get Moving" I looked at how you can move while working.  In this post I want to review the technology solutions that are out there. Activity Trackers Most of the technology solutions currently available are wearable activity trackers. These products are basically advanced sensors that come embedded inside of bracelets or clips that hook onto your clothing. They measure your daily activity (steps taken and calories burned), sleep, and through an associated app, diet.  Below I list some of the common trackers.

• 1. Apple Watch

Everyone knows that Apple is about to launch the Apple Watch which will have a plethora of health and fitness functionalities. However the Apple Watch heavily relies on the iPhone to function and is not really considered a standalone device. But I want to focus on one interesting feature which is that ten minutes before each hour, the Apple Watch taps on their arms as an alert to ecourage you to stay active or just simply stand up. I can see this being essential for people who want to stay active but find they lose track of time when they work.

• 2. Jawbone UP

The company’s wearable activity tracker, Jawbone UP includes a step counter, sleep tracker and an idle alert, which offers reminders to users by buzzing if they are inactive. What is neat about Jawbone is that it links to your calendar from your iPhone and see what your schedule is with meetings and we can say — rather than buzzing you during the middle of your board meeting — we can actually wait until the end and give you some insight.

• 3. Nike+ Fuelband

What is good about the Nike+ Fuelband activity tracker is that lets you set an activity goal, you can press a button on an LED screen to check your progress, and displays a green light when you have achieved your goal.  However it can be inaccurate if for some reason you happen to move your hands swiftly throughout the day.

• 4. Fitbit One

Fitbit One is the best holistic tracking of activity, diet and sleep and is good value compared to some of the other activity trackers. The app creates graphs, charts and tools based on your data and lets you easily log food, water, weight, food plans and more.  It is especially good for women as you can clip it in the center of your bra, rather than trying to blend in a wrist based activity tracker with your outfit. Applications “I'll help you unclog your mind and uncramp your body”, is the promise of HotSeat health app that turns short breaks into meaningful activity through nudges and social accountability.  What I like about this application is that it allows you to create competition - which are always very motivational! Darma - The Hitech Cushion Digital health upstart Darma have developed a cushion that aims to help people take control of their sitting habits.  It helps you remember to maintain good posture when sitting down for long periods of time. The cushion contains one millimeter-thick fiber optic sensors that sense the user’s movements. The pillow also has embedded sensors that detect heart rate, stress level, and respiration. All of this information is sent to a companion app on the user’s smartphone. The app can then track a user’s stress level, sitting time, and posture and try to motivate users to get up every now and then. It will also alert users when they’ve slipped into a bad position and explain how to correct their posture. If users are feeling back pain, the app can guide them through stretches that might help relieve it.  To me this more directly provides relevant information to help my clients than some of the more wearable technology solutions.  I am looking forward to its launch later this year, until then there is always massage!

More than 10 million people in the UK get headaches regularly, making them one of the most common health complaints. The most common treatment is to take a pain killer.  In previous blog posts I have explored other treatments including

• Massage
• Nutrition
• Bowen Technique
• Cranial-Sacral Therapy
• Acupuncture

Most headaches aren't serious and are easily treated.  However it is important that anyone with a headache “that is out of the norm” should see their GP as soon as possible. Particularly if the headache is more likely to be serious i.e.:

• it occurs suddenly and is very severe – often described as a blinding pain unlike anything experienced before
• it doesn't go away and gets worse over time
• it occurs after a severe head injury
• it's triggered suddenly by coughing, laughing, sneezing, changes in posture, or physical exertion
• you have symptoms suggesting a problem with your brain or nervous system, including weakness, slurred speech, confusion, memory loss, and drowsiness
• you have additional symptoms, such as a high temperature (fever), a stiff neck, a rash, jaw pain while chewing, vision problems, a sore scalp, or severe pain and redness in one of your eyes

Tension headaches (see headache categorization) are one of the most common complaints we see in the Vitality Therapy treatment rooms, and Seated Acupressure Neck & Shoulder massage is what we recommend. (Book here)