The Office Rat

Stabilizing Your Shoulders for Better Desk Posture

Larry — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:17:00 +0000

Sorry for not posting much lately. I've been really busy in my massage practice and working on another publishing venture.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how to stabilize shoulders so that they can best serve you at your desk.

The rolled-forward posture that typically accompanies desk work leads to pain between the shoulder blades, sore necks, headaches, and other afflictions. Tucking your shoulders back and getting them to lie down on your torso is a first step to undoing this pattern and relieving your pain.

Forward-shoulder posture rotates the scapula forward and pulls the whole shoulder girdle up over the front of your torso. This stresses the muscles on your back, especially the muscles between and below the shoulder blades (primarily the rhomboids and the middle and lower parts of the trapezius).

"The Case for Working With Your Hands"

Larry — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:09:44 +0000

One way to deal with the vagaries of office work is to not deal with the vagaries of office work.

In The Case for Working With Your Hands, Matthew Crawford contrasts his work as a motorcycle mechanic with inane desk work. More generally, he talks about the differences between "real" work (like construction trades) and the "knowledge work" that anchors so many of us to our desks.

After a long section on the challenges and rewards of being an independent trades worker, Crawford offers this look at one of the hallmark office rat roles, the middle manager:

Office Rats Need Shiny Eyes, Too

Larry — Wed, 06 May 2009 06:43:07 +0000

Empowerment lessons from the factory floor

When Brian Utting held a ceremony to mark the closing of his massage school (my alma mater), among the many speakers was Hank Queen. I didn't know anything about Hank at the time, but I was very taken with a story he told about "shiny eyes."

The story went something like this. Hank was the director of a large manufacturing group at Boeing, which was struggling in the aftermath of 9/11. Orders were down as the airline industry reeled. Employee morale and productivity at Boeing were low and getting worse. Hank and his management team decide to bring in a high-powered business consultant from Japan to help address the issue. Boeing flew the consultant over at great expense, and Hank and his team immediately took him to the factory floor. After only a few minutes, the consultant turned to Hank and said, "I can't help these people. They don't have shiny eyes."

Laptop Ergonomics

Larry — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:08:39 +0000

Laptop computers have now replaced desktop computers as many office worker's main computer.

This presents a challenging ergonomics problem. Since the laptop keyboard, pointing device, and screen are connected as a single unit it is impossible to have both a relaxed shoulder/arm/wrist position and a level neck and head posture.

If you raise the laptop to a comfortable position in front of your eyes, then the keyboard and pointing device will be too high and your wrists will suffer. If you lower the keyboard to a comfortable position, then you will strain your neck looking down at the monitor.

Laptop Ergonomic Solutions

Seattle Shoulder Injury Epidemic?

Larry — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 02:39:15 +0000

What is going on with Seattle's shoulders? I received two calls this morning from patients with recent shoulder injuries, and I have treated at least four other people for similar conditions in the past week.

It's not unusual to have people lined up outside my office with shoulder pain around the holidays. Plane, train, and automobile travel takes its toll on shoulders and necks, and hide-a-beds and cots rough up holiday travelers even more. But I've never before seen a spate of shoulder problems like this in February.

I truly hope that you're not having any shoulder pain, but if you're in Seattle and your shoulder is bothering you, give me a shout. My clinical skills have been well honed by a couple hundred hours of orthopedic massage classes and hundreds of hours of clinical practice.

Tame Anxiety with a Media Fast

Larry — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:18:10 +0000

Even in the best of times, constant exposure to news media can make us anxious. When times are challenging, reading the news can feel like standing on the edge of an abyss.

So don't do it. Don't read the paper. Don't watch TV. Don't listen to radio news. Don't read Google News, CNN.com, or MSNBC. Let it go.

The world won't end just because you don't know what's going on. In fact, it can make your little corner of the world less anxious. As business psychologist Frederic Lehrman says, "The more you know, the more you could worry about."

I'm not advocating a complete withdrawal from media for all time. And I don't believe that ignorance is bliss. I'm just saying that you can have more serenity and peace in your life if you stop consuming news media for a while.

Vitamin D Deficiency? Heliotherapy to the Rescue

Larry — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 16:50:54 +0000

It's a sunny morning in Seattle, so I am sitting in front of a wide open window in nothing but running shorts, enjoying a nice blast of sunshine, appreciating its warmth and contemplating the natural Vitamin D that it's creating in my body.

Since I'm such a health nerd, I feel the need to label this, and luckily there's already a word for it - heliotherapy (helio means "sun").

This reminds me of a photo I saw years ago in National Geographic of residents of Moscow standing against a brick wall in sub-zero winter weather throwing open their heavy coats to reveal their shorts and swim suits underneath.

For you office rats in the Sunbelt, this may sound a little pathetic, but for the northern office rat, especially here in the Great Northwest (or, as my cousin calls it, the "Grey Northwet"), we have to grab our sunshine when we can.

Contrast Hydrotherapy for Your Aching Wrists

Larry — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:11:11 +0000

Using a keyboard and doing other repetitive office tasks can lead to achy wrists and hands and even to carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and other repetitive stress injuries (RSI).

I can speak with some authority on wrist and hand health. In addition to writing for The Office Rat every morning, I do three or four massages and an hour or so of insurance paperwork every afternoon, and I often end the day playing percussion for an African dance class. It’s no surprise that at the end of some of these days, my wrists are stiff and sore.

A Simple Stretch for Your Tight Hips

Larry — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:11:11 +0000

After a long stint at your desk, you stand up and feel tightness deep in your hips or you get a sharp pang in your low back. Odds are good that a tight psoas muscle is the culprit.

Sitting all day shortens the deep muscles that flex the hip and trunk. When you stand, the angle between your torso and your thighs is about 180 degress. When you sit, the angle is reduced to about 90 degrees. Muscles love to adapt to the positions you put them in, so it's no surprise that your psoas get tightened by a desk posture that shortens it.

Psoas Stretch #1

If you feel any pain as you do this exercise, stop and consult your doctor.

Stand in a lunge position with one foot 18-24" in front of the other and your torso centered between your feet.

Active Sitting with an Exercise Ball

Larry — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:11:11 +0000

We are sitting more now than at any point in history. We used to work on farms and in factories. We used to hand-craft barrels or hammer out horse shoes or weave rugs. Now most of us are office rats, sitting on our keisters all day.

Using "active seating" part of each day puts your core muscles back to work and engages you more physically in your desk job.