Joint pain is no fun, though thankfully these days it’s pretty easy to find a joint pain specialist near you who can help ease neck pain, back pain, or pain from sports work injuries. After all, physical therapy is a growing speciality, and BLS.gov estimates that the physical therapist career industry will grow by 25% by 2026. The best thing, though, would be to avoid joint pain altogether! Here are a few tips to help those of us with office jobs avoid the dreaded joint paint, and how to know when it’s time to see a joint pain specialist.
Avoiding Joint Pain at Work
For those of us working in offices, joint pain is an un-looked for menace. The long days at desks and computers can be very hard on the joints of the wrist, neck, knee, and back. Here’s a few tips to minimize the damage:
- Take regular breaks to move around. Give all the joints a break every 30 minutes, or at the most every 90 minutes. If you have a hard time remembering to do this, there are plenty of apps available that will time your work for you and darken the screen at set intervals to push you up and out.
- Switch up where you work, if that’s an option. If you can work from your laptop, take it to a different room, to the cafeteria, or out to a coffee shop. Just working in a different chair and desk position for a while can bring some relief and keep you from holding precisely the same position constantly. Think about getting a desk for both sitting and standing. A lot of joint pain specialist recommend these now. They’re adjustable, so you can go from sitting to standing with relative ease. Doing either exclusively can be problematic, so switch it up regularly.
- Exercise and stretch. Your joint pain specialist can give you specific exercises that you can do in your office to help relieve the stress and tension on your joints. Just remember that office yoga and stretching is no substitute for a full exercise program outside the office.
- A deformed joint
- Intense pain
- Inability to use the joint
- A lot of sudden swelling.
- Comes with swelling and tenderness
- Doesn’t go away on its own within a week
- Interferes with your ability to work or do life
- Is chronic and building
When to See a Joint Pain Specialist
Sometimes joint pain gets better on its own with a bit rest. Other times, you need help. In 2011, only 11.7 million adults in the United States actually got outpatient physical therapy help, and only 35% of people were faithful to the exercise regime and plans of care that their physical therapists prescribed. Don’t be one of these statistics: go get help from a joint pain specialist before things get too bad, and then do what they recommend! See a doctor right away if your joint pain is accompanied by:
Make an appointment to see your joint pain specialist if your joint pain:
Joint pain can be frustrating and can interfere with everything you need to do in life. It can make it harder to work, or even stop you from caring for your kids or enjoying your free time. Do what you can to avoid joint pain in the first place, and when you can’t, see a joint pain specialist to get the help you need.