Musculoskeletal Wellness

Continued from the previous post. Thus the possible and probable areas of stress in a short person (desk worker/housewives) would be : Shoulders: leads to rounding and closed chest attitude. May have pain at terminal ranges associated with stiffness.  Wrists: If working at odd angles, can complain of cramps, wrist pain or potentially develop symptoms suggestive of carpal tunnel syndrome (tingling in the fingers, commonly attributed to be coming from spine).  Spine: Slouching with exaggeration of the upper dorsal kyphotic curvature, with a forward head attitude of the neck.  Knees: Due to the need to sit with the legs tucked below the chair, rested on the chair base or sitting with the knees cross-legged to prevent them for dangling due to unavailability of foot rests  Ankle and feet: If the user is sitting with feet supported only at the toes, then she is likely to experience cramps in the calf muscles, pain around the ankle and at the toe joints, which will ex...

Sedentary lifestyle is a major source of mechanical load and this will come as a surprise to many. If one analyzes the type of patients commonly observed in the orthopaedic clinics, then one will find majority of them to be those who are into sedentary habits; students, desk workers', housewives, retired personnel, those who are resting more. Sitting is a major source of static and dynamic loading. Sitting continuously is a static activity and sitting twisted is a combination of dynamic and static activity. Similarly regarding the other body parts. Mechanical loads depend upon the dynamics between the user and the environment in which he or she are undertaking the tasks and the body part (s) that is involved while doing so. The working environment (kitchen, office, transport and similar other areas) are all designed keeping an average height and body structure into consideration. The farther the user is from the average the more the need to compromise while using these working e...

Mechanical loading plays THE important role in the evolution of any musculoskeletal condition. All the joints of the body and its surrounding muscles and soft tissues are designed to function in their neutral position. Every joints has its own optimum zone of functioning and any deviation from that zone produces stresses on the muscles, tendons, and structures of the joint. Also all structures of the body have their independent tolerance capacity of withstanding the load. A body part is exposed to various types of static and dynamic forces during the routine activities of daily living. Static means keeping the body part in a position without moving it for prolonged duration. For example in the upper limb: holding a mouse, reading a newspaper, holding a mobile phone, driving and other similar activities. Dynamic means using the body part in a way that it is exposed to various active actions. For example in upper limb: washing clothes, cleaning utensils, texting with thumb, vigorous...