Spinal disc degeneration is very common among office workers. Slouching forward at a computer for long periods of time is one of the most common causes of this painful posture problem.
I found out about my spinal disc degeneration by accident. In hindsight, I’d had symptoms of degenerative disc disease. There was pain and dysfunction in my neck and back. I just figured it was from overtraining, weightlifting, or running. At that point, I didn’t even know what spinal disc degeneration was. And I had no idea my pain was a computer-related injury.
But then I got rear-ended in a car accident. I got hit pretty hard, but it wasn’t serious. I went to the chiropractor to get x-rays done as a precaution. That’s when I learned about my disc degeneration. My chiropractor told me this wasn’t from the accident. Disc degeneration happens when the spine is held out of its neutral position, for long periods of time. This is the moment my chiropractor and I realized, sitting at a computer for a living was sending me down a painful path of degenerative disc disease, including neck and back pain.
This article is not professional medical advice. It’s based off my personal experience and opinions. For years, my poor computer posture caused muscle tension, inflammation, and chronic pain. Bad posture also decreased my mental clarity, energy level, and work productivity.
All the desk worker health tips I write about are directly related to improving posture at a computer. We are our own primary caretakers. Do your research. Make good decisions. And be the best advocate possible for your own healthcare.
What is Spinal Disc Degeneration?
This degenerative disc disease overview will be strictly from the point of view of an office worker who uses a computer for long periods of time. Each of the vertebra in our spine is attached to a soft tissue disc that protects the vertebra from the next vertebra.
When we slouch forward, the muscles on the front of our torso tighten and shorten. At the same time, muscles on the back of our torso overextend and lengthen. This causes the spine to be pulled out of its natural curves. It causes vertebrae to crush the front sides of the discs. At the same time, vertebrae on the back sides of the discs are pulling apart. This tears the soft tissue discs away from the vertebrae over time.
Symptoms of spinal disc degeneration
My symptoms of spinal disc degeneration were:
- pain
- muscle tension
- weakness
- inflammation
- dysfunction
- tingling
- poor posture
These symptoms would happen anywhere in my spine, from my neck, all the way down to my lower back.
Preventing spinal disc degeneration
There are 4 different stages of degenerative disc disease. I found out about my condition in 2012. Back then, my chiropractor said there’s no way to reverse, or heal, my disc degeneration. Luckily, we’d caught it early on. I was only in stage 1 of spinal disc degeneration.
Even though my disc degeneration couldn’t be reversed or healed, I could prevent further damage by changing my poor computer posture habits.
The first healthy habit I adopted, I learned about the natural curves of the spine. I found out that “sitting up straight” is actually really bad advice. It would cause me to sit up “too straight.” My lumbar curve would flatten and my spine would overextend.
Instead of “sit up straight,” I like to say…
Sit with an upright torso and a neutral, balanced spine with the natural curves intact.
It’s not nearly as catchy of a phrase as “sit up straight.” But the human body is very complex. I do try to make computer posture as easy to understand as possible. However, sometimes going into detail is a very important part of ergonomics. To do a deeper dive on this topic, check out my article titled Computer Posture: Why “Sit Up Straight” is Bad Advice.
I think back to how many times a coach taught me how to throw a ball, or how to do a squat. No one has ever told me how to sit at a computer to prevent spinal disc degeneration. Even though, we are at our workstations 8 hours a day. That’s when I realized there was a need to fix computer posture mistakes.
Don’t slouch forward.
When we grab something with our hands (a keyboard, mouse, phone, steering wheel), our bodies tend to naturally slouch forward. This is because our arm and chest muscles tense up. Slouching forward can be avoided, but it takes a lot of body awareness.
Raise your chair height until knees are slightly below hip level and elbows are slightly above desk level.
I used to sit with my chair way too low. It would cause my elbow level to also be too low. I’d naturally slouch forward and lift my hands up onto the keyboard and mouse. This is one of the most costly computer posture mistakes I used to make. But it was easy to fix. The hard part was having the body awareness to realize what I was doing wrong.
Raise your monitor until the top of the screen is at eye level.
I used to have my computer monitor too low. I also used to work solely on a laptop monitor. Both of these were painful computer posture mistakes that caused a lot of neck pain, tension, and spinal disc degeneration.
Having a monitor that’s too low caused me to tilt my head forward and look downward for long periods of time. The muscles on the front of my neck compressed and shortened, which crushed the discs on the anterior side of my neck. The muscles on the back of my neck overextended and lengthened, which caused the discs on the posterior side of my neck to tear. This was causing spinal disc degeneration in my neck. I was able to prevent further disc degeneration by raising my monitor until the top of the screen was even with my eye level. This also put me in a good posture that helped me avoid slouching my torso forward.
Take advantage of chiropractic care.
I go to the chiropractor once a week on average. I’ll go regardless if I’m experiencing pain or not. Because I put my body through a lot of repetitive strain and overuse.
Also, my chiropractor doesn’t just align bones. She also does various forms of soft tissue release work. I got really lucky by finding a good chiropractor who thinks outside the box. To learn more about the posture benefits I’ve gotten, check out my article titled Can Chiropractic Care Improve Your Computer Posture?
Once I learned to implement these healthy posture habits into my daily routine, living with spinal disc degeneration hasn’t been so bad. But keep in mind, I caught mine early, when it was in stage 1. That definitely made it easier to prevent further disc degeneration. This is a great example of why body awareness is very important, when it comes to finding computer posture mistakes and how to fix them.
THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST IN COMPUTER POSTURE.
If you’ve read this far, congratulations! You’re taking valuable steps to reduce computer-related injuries by improving your posture. That’s something to be very proud of!
If you liked this article on spinal disc degeneration, check out my book titled 45 Ways to Improve Computer Posture.
This book is a great supplement to the article you just read. It covers healthy ergonomic habits like posture, sleep, hydration, and breathing.
I wrote this book to be the resource I wish I had back in 2002, when I first started sitting at a computer for long periods of time.
Go to SittingPosture.com/book to learn more.
Take care,
Todd Bowen