back pain - Alexander Technique - Tanya Shoop

April 9, 2014

Housework – the dreaded hoovering

Hoovering can be uncomfortable and can make your back ache. What can happen is that you stand fairly still and overuse the arms – pushing and pulling with your arms, making loads of effort. This leads to bending forward, often putting strain on the lower back. Here are some ideas to experiment with:

Make the handle long enough so that you don’t need to bend as you hoover
As you hoover, step or rock forward and back – a bit like doing a dance – and the hoover handle will just move with you
Reduce your effort and let the hoover do the work. Make the suction right for the surface. If it’s too high, you have to make an effort to move the brush; if it’s too low, then you have to go over the surface more times.

Hoovering is my least favourite chore. And that’s worth noting because if you dread something, then you tend to tighten up before even starting it. So I have a little chat with myself to think that it might not be that bad. And I sometimes plug myself into some music to dance as I hoover. It’s so much better that way.

February 6, 2013

Children’s Posture at the Computer

child at laptop - poor posture as chair too low

I was visiting a friend at the weekend and their 9 year old was using the computer for his homework. Whilst this looked a lot more fun than homework was in my day, it might not be fun in the long term (or even short term) for his back.

He was sitting at the kitchen table. His feet didn’t reach the floor. He was working at a laptop with a small screen so was having to dip his head to read the screen. He was only using one hand to type and was twisted as he reached over the keyboard. Because of this, his right shoulder was higher than the left, his back and neck were twisting and he was coming off his right sitting bone a bit.

Kids use computers for homework and computer games, browsing and drawing. It is a disaster in waiting if we don’t address their posture – backache, neck pain, shoulder pain, tight hips are all waiting to leap at a potentially young age. There are also implications for eyesight problems too if they stare at a screen for too long, keeping a limited focal distance

So, what can be done to help things? Here are a few ideas:

Awareness, awareness, awareness. Parents, carers, teachers and young people all need to know that using our body well is as important as using the computer well. Think posture first.
Chair Height – shoulders. The chair seat needs to be high enough so the forearms are parallel to the keyboard without raising the shoulders. If the forearms are sloping upwards, the chair is too low. Use books or a cushion to raise the seat height if it’s not an adjustable chair.
Chair Height – legs. If their feet don’t reach the ground or aren’t flat on the floor, put something under their feet. Either some books/blocks or a small stool if they are really little. Their thighs should be parallel to the floor.
Screen Height. Ideally, the top of the screen should be level with the eyes. A separate keyboard is helpful for laptops so the laptop or netbook can be propped up on something to raise the screen height.
Watch for twisting or slumping. There’s a lot more to this than meets the eye which is where a trained Alexander Technique practitioner can advise. But at least start to look at their posture and notice what is going on. Also keep an eye on your own posture as children mimic adults. I find that parents who bring their children to me to look at their posture are often slumped in the chair during our appointment!
Don’t “Sit Up Straight!” Following the above point, sitting up straight makes people hitch up and be stiff. They often arch the lower back and push the chin up too far. Instead, see if they can wriggle onto their sitting bones. More gentle and may be more effective.

If adults and children are sharing a computer, then these adjustments needed to be made for each person. It’s tempting to think that we’re only going to use the computer for a bit but we do tend to get a bit sucked in and then find we’re on it for longer than intended.

I’m happy to work with children. They often only need a few sessions. I do prefer that the parent/carer also has lessons with me. It helps the adult have an experience and greater understanding of what we’re working with and will help them with their child as they can share ideas and insights.

January 9, 2013

Ageing doesn’t need to be a downhill process

Older Woman with back pain - Alexander Technique can improve back pain

Getting older doesn’t mean things inevitably are on a downhill slide. Getting in and out of the chair can be done without moans and groans and backache isn’t something that has to be accepted as a part of ageing.

It’s about looking at how we do things. Plonking into a chair is heavy and will round the back, putting pressure on the lower back. Trying to launch yourself up from the back of a soft low sofa is pretty tricky at any age. Getting up from lying down or sitting is made more difficult if you’re tipping your head back.

Some time back, I worked with an older person who had back and knee problems that were so bad that he was practically having to crawl upstairs by the end of the day. By our second session, the most important initial change was that he had hope that things could improve. Hope makes a huge difference.

The arthritis and osteoporosis were still there. But seeing how he could use his body differently and changing some of his movement habits put less pressure on his joints.

We looked at activities such as sitting, standing and bending and also at getting up and down stairs. The practical ideas he took on board plus the way he was able to hold his body less tensely changed things enormously. From crawling up the stairs or grabbing onto the banister, he became able to walk up two flights of stairs holding a mug of tea in each hand!

One of the problems with aches and pains is that one can focus on the problem area too much. Arthritis and other knee problems can make people dread a movement before they do it – stairs and sitting being two such situations. The dread or anxiety about triggering knee pain makes people tense. So here we have a triple whammy:

tightening the body
focusing on the problem area and ignoring the rest of the body
having unhelpful habits such as throwing the head back.

And so there are 3 areas to look at changing:

pausing before moving to quieten down the tensing
thinking about the whole body and thinking up
exploring practical ways of moving which work with rather than against natural balance.

This is what the Alexander Technique is about. So there are plenty of things to look at and ageing certainly doesn’t need to be a downhill process.

November 6, 2012

Computer Monitors – Screen Height.

To avoid neck strain, the top of your computer monitor should be at eye level, about an arm’s length away. Our eyes naturally look about 15 degrees down and so will then naturally look onto the screen.

There are various bits of equipment that you can buy to raise the screen but a cheap and cheerful option is to prop it up on some large books.

For laptops, it’s a different scenario as the screen is invariably too low and may even be a little close. This is fine if only using the laptops for short periods of time. If you are using a laptop a lot and don’t need it to be too portable, you can buy a separate keyboard and mouse. Ideally, the keyboard should be a “low profile” keyboard – one that is fairly flat. You can then prop the laptop up, an arm’s length away, with the top of the monitor at eye level. There are different types of kit available for this including ones that are like cookery book holders and others that are like bean bags. But, once again, you can always prop the laptop up on some large books.

Posturally, it is not good to push your head and neck forward to read the screen. This can cause neck pain, back and shoulder strain. It’s worth getting your eyes tested regularly to ensure you can see clearly. You can also look at getting a larger screen or adjusting the print size on screen. But also trust your eyes as pushing the head forward may just be an unnecessary habit.

So as well as thinking about your computer set up, think about your body and how you use it.

July 24, 2012

Top tips for gardeners to prevent back pain

Now the sunshine has arrived, it’s time to get out in the garden, deal with the slugs and to try to salvage the poor drenched plants and veggies. But take care not to go all out at the cost of your back. Here are some top tips:

Weeding and sewing seeds can be done sitting or kneeling. A small stool or a kneeling mat save strain on the back. You could even use a small brick if nothing else is to hand;
Digging, raking and hoeing: try not to grip too tightly onto the tools. Keep the neck free and think up through the body as you work;
Sheds. If you’re using the lawnmower a lot, is it in an awkward place in the shed where you need to stretch or twist to get it out? Rearrange the shed to have heavy or awkward tools as easy to access as possible.
Mowing. When pulling the mower backwards, don’t arch the back. Try not to twist your body too much;
Bending. Keeping the legs straight and bending the back is a great strain on the body. Remember to use the knees. If you’ve had Alexander Technique lessons, remember “monkey” – a way of bending in a more body-friendly way;
Have a break. Sit and have a cuppa enjoying the view or lie down. Find something to put under your head to keep the neck in neutral (not arched backwards) and have the legs bent for lower back comfort. This will help towards the backache that so many gardeners suffer from.