What’s Causing You Pain
Probably the most frustrating health condition imaginable is being stuck in the grips of chronic pain.
I’ve been there. In fact, I’m still there on many days.
Many of you know me as a pretty health conscious dude (… duh, I run a health site), but some of you may not know that I had such bad lower back and neck pain that I was an insomniac for almost three years.
And even though most of my lower back pain is resolved (100%), I still have neck pain some days of the week. Pain is awful.
Fortunately (for both of us) I have a lot of experience figuring out actually works for fixing chronic pain.
At a base level, it’s because of three things:
You’re using your body improperly – e.g. your neck is sticking out, rather than being tucked back
You’ve developed localized areas of tension, also known as trigger points, which send referral pain throughout the body (generally around the area they are found in), because of #1
Lack of motion has made certain regions of your body limited in their flexibility – for example, frozen shoulder syndrome typically only happens to people in “motion-starved” environments, who aren’t physically active. Literally, one of the reasons it develops is lack of “use”
So, ultimately for lasting pain relief, you need to address all three.
Right now, I’m going to give you the method for addressing #2 – which often provides immediate pain relief. But for permanent relief you need to focus on all three phases. More on this later.
I recommend picking up a foam roller, you can find them here on Amazon for as little as $19:
I personally have one that I bring to my office (to roll myself out during the day as I sit) and often in my bedroom where I do a quick “10 minute pain relief” ritual at the end of the day.
This is what I recommend for pain relief:
A nightly 10 minute pre-bedtime ritual where you just roll out problematic areas. That’s it. The videos in this article will give you the formula specific to your aches and pains.
First, watch this little introduction before we get started:
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Neck and Upper Back Pain Relief
Sit at a desk all day and stare into a computer screen for 40+ hours a week?
Yup, you’re a prime candidate for neck pain, tight traps, shoulder problems, and carpal tunnel.
There’s no point in me wasting a ton of time going into the origin of this kind of pain (because you can find all my best videos for neck and shoulder pain relief here).
But at the base level, if your head is looking down for extended periods of time, or your head is poking forward and sticking out for extended periods, you’re headed down the long road towards chronic pain.
For now, watch this video which will help you get some instant pain relief:
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Burning Between Shoulder Blades and Mid Back Pain
For those of you that get that horrible burning between the shoulder blades, where you keep “shrugging” to try and loosen the back up, this will help.
But at the base level, this is occurring because your shoulders are stuck in the hunched position. In other words, it’s locked in an improper position.
The underlying process you need to fix this is pulling your shoulder blades back. I’ll link to an article below to address the underlying problem here.
For now, this video will give you the night time 10 minute ritual to “iron out” some pain.
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Lower Back Pain Relief
With the lower back, the biggest problem is that we sit at our desks all day in “hunched positions” where we are putting pressure on the spine and vertebrae.
If you let the spine regain its natural “S” shape, you won’t be developing aches and pains, triggers points, and all that good stuff.
I will link below to a back pain article to help address the underlying cause.
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Knee Pain and Injuries
Now with the knees, there are a couple big issues:
Tight hips and groin muscles.
Tight quads.
Lack of ankle and hip flexibility.
Weak glutes (since we sit on our glutes all day, they are actually sitting in a position that is stretching them out and making them flacid and weak).
See the article I reference below for a detailed all-in-one program for knees.
But for now, here’s a 3 minute foam rolling routine.
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More in the Chronic Pain Relief Series
Like I mentioned above, this is for short term pain relief, and it works! I do it almost every day for my specific problems caused by sitting 12 hours a day.
Underlying all these aches and pains is misuse or improper use of your body.
The following articles give you the A-Z about reversing chronic pain, so check them out if you’re struggling to fix pain for good:
For neck and shoulder problems (click the image):
For knee pain (click the image):
For lower back pain:
That’s all for now.
Focus on creating a 10 minute nightly ritual of pain relief, especially if you sit all day.
It’s all about habits, right?
These are the habits of pain-free living.
- Alex
P.S. I’ve got a free pain-free course that is a combination of ALL my best pain relief videos and tips in one spot. You can download it here.
The post 5 Things You MUST Do For Pain Relief If You Sit at a Desk All Day appeared first on Modern Health Monk.
