Sitting at work is often demonised. If you sit all day and adopt the wrong posture, you can expect neck pain - that's the widespread opinion. But is this really the case? We get to the bottom of the theory and offer suggestions on how you can prevent a strained neck in the office. 

What is the perfect posture at the desk? How can I avoid neck pain despite having an office job? We are often asked about this topic in our physiotherapy practice when patients come to us with a stiff neck and back pain. The hope of those affected: With a few small changes, such as a new, ergonomic office chair, they can get their neck pain under control. 

What do sitting and back pain have to do with each other? 

Do these quick solutions like a new chair exist? Based on our current state of knowledge, we can tell you: We don't know the one best office chair. You can also spend a long time searching Google for the one perfect posture at your desk. Because there is no such thing. The studies agree on this. It seems to be more important to adopt many different positions when working in the office. If you sit a lot, this is not directly bad. A sedentary job as such should not be viewed negatively and is not necessarily harmful. 

How can I prevent back and neck problems in an office job?

If it's not sitting, what is causing you pain? It has been shown time and again that physical inactivity and monotonous postures in particular have a negative impact on the mechanism and our body. So here it is important to realise that it is not sitting itself that causes stiff necks. Doing nothing else for a long time and staying in one position are the culprits. To prevent discomfort, physical activity or even sport during breaks and after work is therefore at the top of the to-do list. Challenge your body! 

But it's not just the compensatory sport after work that is relevant. You can also prevent neck pain at work. Try to integrate these tips into your daily work routine to prevent a monotonous posture and monotonous work:

• Adopt many different sitting positions throughout the day. Perhaps simply move your mouse to the other side. Or organise a sitting ball. 
• Stand up from time to time or work standing up for some of the time. Your employer may be able to help you organise a height-adjustable desk. 
• Put short walking breaks on your agenda. A regular walk in the fresh air or even just a few steps to the water dispenser can work wonders. Perhaps you can also take a few steps when you're on the phone in the office? 

I do physical labour. Do I still have to exercise at work and after work?

The answer: yes! Because even with a job that requires physical exertion or long periods of standing, you are not off the hook. The likelihood of developing back and neck problems is just as high as if you work in an office. So if you think you don't need to do any compensatory sport because of your physical work, you are unfortunately mistaken. This often affects professions in the care, trade, security or logistics sectors. Here, too, workers often perform very similar movement patterns during their work. This leads to monotony in a different way - our real culprit for neck pain at work. 

Our recommendation: Even in physically active jobs, it makes sense to challenge the areas of the body that otherwise don't get their money's worth during work. Find a suitable balance. For example, there is often a lack of endurance exercise that trains the cardiovascular system or strength exercises with a suprathreshold stimulus, i.e. a higher load on the muscles. During working hours, you could try to regularly transfer new movement patterns to your work. To do this, pick out a familiar movement sequence for a particular activity and think about: what other posture can you adopt for a longer period of time? This will encourage and challenge areas of your body that normally work less or are under less strain. 

Why is exercise so important for our bodies?

Working is exhausting, whether mentally in the office or physically in the company. Adding exercise to the mix doesn't sound very appealing. We understand that. But if you want to work on your complaints and prevent pain, there's simply no getting round it. After all, sport and physical exercise are among the most important foundations for a healthy body - on numerous levels: 

• Our blood circulation and lymphatic system - part of our defence system - are supported by muscle activity. 
• Regular loading and unloading of our spine ensures that our intervertebral discs are cared for. 
• We can reduce stress hormones and release happiness hormones through sport.
• By regularly challenging our bodies with sport, we experience an increase in resilience in many areas. 
• Regular training has a positive influence on our cartilage and cardiovascular system, our cognitive performance, metabolism, stretch tolerance and muscle constitution, for example. 

And we really don't have to run a marathon to achieve positive side effects. Even small changes in everyday life or at work can have a positive effect on the body. For example, if you regularly stretch completely or stand upright (3-5 minutes per hour) instead of constantly leaning forwards at work, you will escape the monotony and put pressure on new areas of your body. This alone stimulates the metabolism. 

Conclusion: It's the movement that counts!

In order to prevent neck pain, we should stop demonising sitting in general. However, alternating postures and different positions at work are important and healthy. We need to create a physical balance for monotonous strains and postures. We explain which special exercises are particularly helpful against neck pain and what ergonomics at the workplace is all about in our blog article: Ergonomics at the workplace and More movement at the workplace.