Therapy for Your Lockdown

 

Besides the stress of avoiding a deadly disease, an uneasy economic situation, and the pressures of working from home, many people are complaining of new pains in their necks, backs and shoulders, or numbness in their fingers or feet. Much of this may be caused by the shift from working at an office with furniture that may have been more ergonomically designed, to an improvised home office that is lacking.

Occupational Therapist Chris Cowen worked for years in an outpatient clinic, and has recently been focusing her private practice to folks working from home through her company Wellness at Work. She provides virtual one-to-one assistance, viewing photos and videos of her clients at their current workstations, then offering suggestions, stretches and equipment recommendations. CoolCleveland recently spoke with her about the effects of the current pandemic, and how her work is helping some folks find relief.

Chris Cowen of Wellness at Work LLC

What is your experience and how did you decide to focus your practice on work-related issues?

I have been an occupational therapist for 25 years.  I was working in an outpatient clinic and quite a few of my patients were there because they had been injured at work.  A case manager of one of the patients asked me if I would like to work 1:1 with clients at their job sites assisting them with safe return to work following injuries.  I was expected to see multiple clients at the same time in the clinic.  I jumped at the opportunity to work with one person at a time and to evaluate the fit between the person’s physical abilities and job demands.  I would recommend reasonable accommodations or modifications if indicated.

I later specialized even further into the field of ergonomics – or evaluating the fit between the worker and the job and making recommendations to allow for increased productivity, safety and comfort while working.  Most of my clients work in offices but I do evaluations at any workplace.

Currently my focus has shifted even more as the much of the workforce moved to their homes to telework during the Covid 19 pandemic.  I am committed to helping them adjust their work set up to enable them to work as comfortably as possible and to avoid musculoskeletal and neurological problems in the future.

 
Before

What are the biggest issues that your clients are facing?

The biggest issue is the shift from working in an office setting that was likely better equipped, to home with sometimes only your laptop to work on.  The laptop is far from ideal to work an 8 hour or more day 5 days per week and was designed with shorter term use.   Even those who have external monitors and a full sized computer at home now find themselves sitting on dining room chairs or using a table that may not be the correct height for them to work with good posture.

The comments I am hearing range from achy shoulders, stiff and painful necks, their low back is hurting, they are experiencing numbness in their feet or perhaps in their fingers.  Some are just overall stiff after a day at the computer.  Some clients complain of migraines and visual strain issues.

After

How much of their problems can be attributed to technology, and how much is more just posture and habit?

With the shift to more and more of an online world with zoom meetings all day and social media at night technology does play a large role, however habit also contributes.  If you think back to your school days, you probably picked a desk and then headed back to that same desk everyday.  It was a habit.  At times we have our chair set a certain way, or our monitor at a certain height and it just stays there…because that is how it was set up. You may not realize the impact that posture has on your wellbeing.

Before

Have you noticed any changes since the Corona virus lockdown? Are people on their computers and phones more? What are you advising?

Both professionally and socially we are more reliant on devices to keep us connected.   Many rely on their phone, tablet or computer for the connection to the outside world.  There are virtual happy hours, book clubs, birthday parties, Yahtzee games, live band performances, and the list goes on and on.  Creative people have found a way to mirror our in person social lives as much as possible on line.

I recommend that anyone sitting and using devices take breaks often. Everyone has different physical considerations but just remember this…. the right position is the next position.  Move often.  Set your alarm on your phone to vibrate every half hour and get up and stretch.  Do the opposite movement that you are doing at your desk while you take a break.  Look upward, pull your arms backwards, stand and straighten your legs.    Stand and walk if you can during phone conversations.  Have an ergonomic evaluation of your workstation and make the recommended changes. Use your larger devices (i.e. monitor screen versus cell phone screen) for the majority of your screen time.

After

Do you have any big-picture recommendations for people? (exercise more, diet, stretching, etc.)

Take a walk on your lunch break and make sure you take a lunch break.  Separate work and personal time.  When you are done working shut the office door and give yourself a break from the screens for a while.  An eye exercise you can use is called the 20-20-20 rule.  Every 20 minutes, look away about 20 feet for 20 seconds.  This allows the muscles used for far distance to be used and gives the close distance muscles a break.  If you think about it, those muscles are looking at the exact same distance for very long periods of time.

Spend time in nature, looking at the big beautiful real world instead of the virtual one for a bit every day if you can.  It’s good for what ails you.

Some of my clients have been visiting chiropractors and have had pain for a while.  They are amazed how some changes to the physical environment and some changes in posture can make a difference in the way they feel at the end of the day.

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