Overuse injuries are, by their very nature, nasty

The causes of overuse injuries are insidious- you spend so much subconscious time performing the same activity and you simply can’t feel the micro-traumas that occuring until they one day reach a breaking point. Today, some of the most common overuse injuries occur in the workplace which has led to the alternative term: work-related musculoskeletal disorders. 

The office is rife with back pain risk factors

• Typing, depending on how hard you strike the keyboard, causes repetitive vibrations in the finger joints which wear down their natural resilience over time. 
• Sitting, when combined with poor posture, can also cause overuse injury because you are sustaining an unnatural and awkward musculoskeletal position for long periods of time. 

Avoiding overuse injuries in the workplace

The best way to avoid overuse injuries is to practice mindfulness. Can you lighten up your keystrokes? Can you remind yourself to maintain good posture? And part of being able to succeed with mindfulness is setting yourself up for ergonomic success- a properly adjusted ergonomic workplace can make the maintenance of good posture all the easier and prevent the repetitive stresses from accumulating. Making sure that you move regularly, stretch your fingers and relieve tension in the various parts of the back should also be a priority.

Caring for overuse injuries

Patience is key here- overuse injuries consistently rank among the slowest to recover. There is no such thing as, ”exercising your way back to normal.” Repetitive strain injuries require rest and gentle rehabilitation. It is important to observe a period of rest and perhaps icing to resolve excess inflammation and swelling. From here, it is necessary to avoid placing excess pressure on the affected tissues and joints, instead working them slowly back into regular movement through less intensive activities. 

Sacramento’s resource for work-related musculoskeletal disorders. 

If you are interested in putting together an action plan to account for your work-related overuse injuries, look no further than Espinosa Family Chiropractic. We are Sacramento’s experts in natural rehabilitation for workplace injuries- give our office a call to schedule an appointment today.