by Patricia Bradley, @PTBradley1
I’ve been told that, as far as health is concerned, sitting is the new smoking. I believe it. And if you are a writer, you are sitting a LOT.
Because these exercises have helped me so much, I wanted to share them with other writers or anyone who sits behind a computer all day. As you know writing is sedentary work and can result in neck, shoulder, and back pain. I should know. I am in the middle of physical therapy for said back and neck pain.
Before I continue, I am not a physical therapist, and if you have any doubts about doing exercises, consult your doctor.
Disregard the flower coming out of my head.
Around Christmas pain in my neck and back resulted in a visit to my doctor who sent me to a physical therapist. He gave me a set of exercises and worked on my neck and back–work that included dry needling. And while I’m not pain-free–I am after all of the older generation, I have at least gotten back to writing.
The first exercise is a stretching exercise for the neck. Sit in a chair, (can be your office chair) and place one hand on top of your head and the other behind your back. Make sure you are sitting tall.
Next, pull your head over like you were trying to smell under your arm. 😉 Hold this stretch for a count of 20. Be sure to focus on letting those muscles relax.
Go ahead, try it. I’ll wait.
Doesn’t that feel good!
Now do the same thing for the other side. Do ten of these every morning after getting out of bed.
The next exercises are head turns and shoulder rolls. For the head turn, sit straight and look as far as you can to the left for a count of 10. If you’re looking to the left, put your right arm behind your back. This gives more stretch. Be sure to repeat the first exercise by turning your neck as far to the right as you can.
The shoulder rolls are just that. Rolling your shoulders, first one way, then another. Then there’s the sideways tilt–it is similar to the first exercise, except you try to touch your ear to your shoulder instead of smelling under your arm. 🙂 And the last one is to stand straight (Like a marine at attention) and press your index finger against your chin. Hold that for 20 seconds.
When I started these exercises, I set a timer and did them about every 4 hours. Now I only do them first thing in the morning and then anytime my neck feels tight. Gradually increase how long you hold each stretch to a minute.
I really want to encourage anyone who sits at a desk all day to find some type of stretching exercise and at least a twenty-minute aerobic exercise. I try to walk every day, and starting in April, I’ll be doing water aerobics twice a week. I also do Pilates twice a week.
These just happen to be the exercises that have helped me to stay pain freer…if that’s a word. At my age, pain and I are old friends. But I believe in exercise. I was facing knee replacement surgery a few years ago, but exercise and collagen injections have kept me out of the OR!
Before I go, I must mention how important it is to have your computer screen where you are looking straight at it instead of looking down.
Looking down is what I’ve done for 20 years, and I’m paying the price. But now I’ve bought a desk that raises and a thingy that I set my laptop on so that I’m looking straight at it instead of looking down.
What exercises do you do to feel better?
Crosshairs (Natchez Trace Park Rangers Book #3)
Investigative Services Branch (ISB) ranger Ainsley Beaumont arrives in her hometown of Natchez, Mississippi, to investigate the murder of a three-month-pregnant teenager. While she wishes the visit was under better circumstances, she never imagined that she would become the killer’s next target–nor that she’d have to work alongside an old flame.
After he almost killed a child, former FBI sniper Lincoln Steele couldn’t bring himself to fire a gun, which had deadly and unforeseen consequences for his best friend. Crushed beneath a load of guilt, Linc is working at Melrose Estate as an interpretive ranger. But as danger closes in on Ainsley during her murder investigation, Linc will have to find the courage to protect her. The only question is, will it be too little, too late?
Award-winning author Patricia Bradley continues her Natchez Trace Park Rangers series with a story about how good must prevail when evil just won’t quit.
Patricia Bradley is a Carol finalist and winner of an Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award in Suspense, and three anthologies that included her stories debuted on the USA Today Best Seller List. She and her two cats call Northeast Mississippi home–the South is also where she sets most of her books. Her romantic suspense novels include the Logan Point series and the Memphis Cold Case Novels. Obsession, the second book in the Natchez Trace Park Rangers series, released Februrary 2, 2021. She is now hard at work on the third book, Crosshairs.
Writing workshops include American Christian Fiction Writers online courses, workshops at the Mid-South Christian Writer’s Conference, the KenTen Retreat where she was also the keynote, Memphis American Christian Fiction Writer group, and the Bartlett Christian Writers group. When she has time, she likes to throw mud on a wheel and see what happens.