Working Women Woes That Should Not Be Ignored

While assessing a young woman having a back pain, I asked her 'Are you working?'. Then I realise that it’s an inappropriate question to be asked. How hard a housewife works to keep a house all smooth and running? So the answer was clear. A woman while working in the offices or at home keeps on bearing responsibilities that is leading to Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSIs). All the RSIs are painful yet women keep on ignoring it. Here is the explanation of some of the RSIs that bothers the women while working by Dr. Bharat Gupta. Senior Physiotherapist & CEO (Spindle Care), who has also listed some simple solutions that can be applied in day to day life to keep you working and fit.

Back Pain

The most common complaint of women working on desktops is low back pain. Similar problem is also seen in women while doing household chores that involve lifting heavy objects and forward bending to pick fruits and vegetables from the lower part of refrigerator, lifting buckets of water or wet clothes etc. These activities put additional stress on the lower back and causes muscle spasm.

If not managed, it may lead to further spine related problems like spondylosis and spondylitis. This can be managed by simple ergonomic solutions. While sitting on desktop, one should always try to maintain the posture in such a way that your back remains straight. This can be achieved both while going backwards on the chair to do reading work or while bending in front for doing typing or writing work.

In short, always Feel Tall while sitting on work-station. Always bend your knee while lifting the weight from the ground or lower heights to avoid excess stress on the lower back. If the weight is heavier than that you can lift easily, divide the weight and lift it in two or further parts.

Knee Pain

Knee pain is common in middle aged women, whether they are working at home or office. The two most common causes for the knee pain are sitting for long durations and lack of walking. It applies on both offices and households. Our knees are basically meant to walk but with increasing dependence on vehicles and gadgets, we are not getting time to walk and use the strength that knee possess.

This is leading to weakness of the thigh muscles and thus knee pain. The common complaints are pain in knee while climbing stairs, stiffness in knee after getting up from low surfaces and difficulty in cross- leg sitting. Well age is just a number everyone should do light exercises and at least 15 minutes of walk everyday to strengthen muscles and to avoid the pain.

To strengthen calf muscles and knee joints there are exercises like static quadriceps, knee flexion and extension, abductors strengthening. The names are may sound new but all these exercises are derived from our day to day life for e.g. static quadriceps is to keep your knee straight and hold it in that position. Bending of knee or knee flexion is very easy and effective exercise for knee joint. 10 repetitions twice for both the exercises in a day are very effective.

Elbows & Hands

Elbow and hands are most used part of our body whether to make a gesture or doing some work, we always use our hands first. In day to day life we almost forgot that how much work we are doing by our hands and elbow which can cause stress and strain on it. There are many conditions which may lead to pain like tennis elbow, golfer’s elbow and carpel tunnel syndrome.

There are easy and effortless exercises which are helpful in strengthening the muscles of elbow and hands. Light stretching of hand in both upwards and downwards helps in alleviating the continuous stress on the muscles of forearm and also helps in pain relief.

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Ankle & Heel

Ankle and heel along with hip and knee joints bears the body weight, thus, they are more prone to strain and sprain. Additional stresses are incurred by wearing biomechanically inappropriate footwear and standing for long durations. The repetitive stress causes heel pain. Medically, it may be diagnosed as plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinitis or calcaneal spur. These are common in nurses, policemen and receptionists.

The most sensible solution is to take off the weight from the foot. This can be achieved by sitting for some time while indulging in a long term standing, or by shifting the weight on each foot alternately.

On the same lines, it is advisable that if you are involved in cooking for long hours in the kitchen then its better to keep a long stool there. Just sit when chopping the vegetables and while cooking is in progress.

The Repetitive stress injuries are common part of the hectic lifestyle. This is true for home as well as working environment. These can be prevented by avoiding stresses that are either continuous or repetitive. But if you get pain that is not subsiding by home remedies and ergonomic solutions then prefer to consult your physiotherapist for the further remediation.

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