Working from home is breaking our bodies, physical therapists say

Physical therapist Deanie Barth always keeps a full schedule, but the pandemic has added a new crop of patients to her roster of New York City clients: Professionals with neck and back aches and other pains arising from hours spent sitting at makeshift work-from-home stations.

Indeed, corporations have sent their workers home from offices, but in most cases, coveted pieces of ergonomic office furniture — think $1,000 Herman Miller chairs and adjustable standing desks— remain in the emptied spaces, as employees continue to work from home in bed, on couches or sitting hunched in front of dressers and countertops.

“People are setting up their home offices wherever they can, including at dining room tables,” Barth, who co-owns Centurion Physical Therapy in midtown Manhattan, told CBS MoneyWatch.

Take for example a family of four with two desk-bound parents and a pair of kids in remote school, all competing for workspace in a New York City apartment.

“So many times people are coming in saying they are sitting semi-reclined with a laptop on a couch,” Barth said.

The physical consequences of this kind of bad posture include spinal disk issues and back and neck strains, she added. Even non-work activities like longer-than-usual walks and high-intensity workouts are doing more damage to our bodies than we may realize.

Working from home has taken a particular toll on the bodies of mothers who simultaneously work and supervise young children learning from home. One working mom recently visited Barth’s practice with persistent neck pain.

The culprit? “It was stemming from the fact that she was at one station and her children were behind her and she was constantly turning around to check on them,” Barth said. “They are literally turning their heads over their shoulders doing their own work while trying to look at their kids at the same time.”

Physical therapists outline some of the most common pandemic-related habits and their physical ramifications. They also offer tips to ease symptoms.

Bad habit: You’re not pretending you’re at the office

Physical therapists’ advice to homebound employees starts with acting like you’re at the office:

• Create a workstation that is dedicated exclusively to work.

“Find a private, quiet and secure place away from the flow of activity at home to decrease distractions and increase one’s ability to focus. And if you have kids, make it someplace that is not in the middle of whatever is going on,” said Tamar Amitay, founder and principal of Thrive Integrated Physical Therapy in downtown Manhattan.

• Keep your eyes level with the top of your web browser to achieve good neck positioning. Keep your elbows at 90 degrees, wrists in a neutral position and your shoulders relaxed to avoid tightness across the chest. An external mouse, versus a touchpad can also help relieve excess strain on the arms and wrists, Amitay said.
• Parents can avoid other kinds of household-based injuries by refraining from holding children on their hips for prolonged periods of time and avoiding bending over at the hip to pick up laundry or children.

You’ve gone from multiple large screens to a laptop

Jessica Schwartz, a physical therapist and American Physical Therapy Association spokesperson, said many of her clients who work in law, finance and media are having to adapt from working with multiple, large computer monitors to handling all their programs and data on one much smaller screen, like a laptop, tablet or smart phone.