Angie Blakemore, LMT
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Effects of a Desk Job

5/16/2018

 
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Your desk job affects more than just your mental stress; it can also impact your body. Sitting for extensive periods of time each day causes more stress on our bodies than we realize. Human beings were not made to sit for as long as most of us tend to, and because of this, the muscles in our upper back, shoulders and upper arms are heavily affected, which can consequently disrupt our posture.

Our bodies are full of trigger points, and there are five specific groups of them within our upper back, shoulders and arms that can be impacted by your desk job.  A trigger point is defined as “a sensitive area of the body, stimulation or irritation of which causes a specific effect in another part, especially a tender area in a muscle that causes generalized musculoskeletal pain when over-stimulated.” The five groups include: scalenes, shoulder blade suspension muscles, rotator cuff muscles, upper arm muscles and spinal muscles.

Have you ever felt deep pains in areas such as your chest, shoulders, arms and even hands, and sought conventional therapy that was unsuccessful at treating your pain? That pain most likely did not come from the area where you felt the pain, but more likely came from the scalenes, which are a group of three small muscles on the side of the neck. Stress tension and bad posture (common effects of a desk job) can cause pain in the scalenes.

Our shoulder blades have 17 muscles that are attached, each with the possibility to hold trigger points which result in irritation caused by bad posture or extensive sitting. Our upper back muscles also have multiple impacted trigger points. The rhomboid muscles attach to several vertebrae of the upper back and to the inner edge of the shoulder blade. Trigger points in the rhomboids can often lead to an achy pain along the inner edge of the shoulder blade. To prevent rhomboid pain, limit any habitual tension that keeps the shoulders up, because this stimulates the formation of trigger points in muscles. The serratus posterior superior muscles attach to the spine like the rhomboids, but they don’t attach to the shoulder blade. When these muscles are affected, you will feel pain under the shoulder blade, most commonly.

The shoulder itself has up to 20 muscles, each vulnerable to strain. The shoulder is one of the most hardworking parts of the body, because we use it even when we don’t realize it. The trigger points that are located in the four rotator cuff muscles are the most frequent cause of shoulder pain, loss of upper arm motion, and clicking or catching in the joint. The supraspinatus muscle, located in a pocket in the top of the shoulder blade also has multiple trigger points that can be affected by stress.

Your upper body takes on a huge amount of stress from your desk job; it’s not only your brain that is affected. The best treatment is to come to me, tell me exactly where you are feeling pain, and let me help reduce your suffering.


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Angie Blakemore, LMT
807 NW 57th St
​Gainesville, FL 32605
​(352) 448-9145
  • Home
  • Book Massage Now!
  • Services & Pricing
  • Angie's Articles
  • About
  • Contact Me (352) 448-9145