Sitting at a desk is hard

“Massage must be such hard work! How do you do it all day?” Eh, it’s not so hard. You can’t tell this when you’re on the table, but we don’t do much repetitive movement, and we get to switch things up if we get tired. In fact, it gets easier as you get more experienced.

Know what’s hard? Sitting at a desk all day. Making tiny movements with your wrist for hours at a time. Standing until your feet go numb.

Do you work in an office environment, or in retail? You have a harder job than I do. The human body can adapt beautifully to a wide range of circumstances, including prolonged standing, constant micro-movements, or swinging a blacksmith’s hammer a thousand times a day. It will make some changes to accommodate your behavior, but it will rarely just refuse to do something, no matter how crazy it might be.

Sitting for 10 hours at a time is new for us humans, and yet we can do it. There are health detriments, but the body chugs along. Just realise that, even if you’re sitting still, your body is having to make a lot of compromises. Your metabolism slows to help you remain sedentary; your adrenal glands give you a constant low dose of stress to keep you awake and aware; and your muscles shorten to stabilise your neck, your shoulders, and your back. Your body’s trying to help you out, but it often ends up making you a stressed ball of tight muscle.

Your body listens to what you do with it, so consider giving it some new input: Dance around your house, do some yoga, get a massage. Send a message to your body that “I need to be able to move in a lot of ways.”

Realise the difficulty of what you do for a living. You’re likely to get sick more, have more headaches, and have lower mood than you would if you moved more at your job. Make allowances accordingly. Take more breaks, get more fresh air, and treat yourself well. You deserve it, and so does your body!

Massage can be extremely beneficial to reduce the aches and pains and muscular dysfunction that comes with sitting at a desk for an extended period every day. If you would like to book a remedial massage with me, please head to the Contact page on our website. I look forward to seeing you soon!