How to help neck pain

Over the last couple of months, we’ve been increasingly asked for advice on how to help neck pain. If you’ve experienced it first hand, you’ll know just how miserable neck pain can be. We’ve put our heads together to come up with some advice and products that will really help, especially at work.

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Why am I getting neck pain?

Firstly, It’s worth looking at your surroundings and understanding why you get neck pain.  Is it something in your environment causing the pain or is it a medical condition such as a prolapsed disc or arthritis? As always, If the pain is persistent, we would always recommend seeking medical advice from your GP.

Causes of neck pain:

• Poor posture
• Sleeping with your neck in an awkward position
• Working at an incorrectly set up workstation
• Nerve compression
• Muscle strain

If you work with a screen day in, day out, it might be the case of developing some bad habits. Here are some of our most common culprits (as modelled by our fabulous Love your workspace team)

If you suffer from neck pain, a chair with a neck rest can be helpful to take micro-breaks.  A micro-break is the opportunity to rest your head back whilst you are thinking about something.  This allows you to rest your neck muscles, and give your body a tiny little break.  Lots of little micro breaks add up and allow you to work for longer, with less discomfort.

What are the best office chairs with neck rests?

Orthopaedica 100

This is a great chair with really good support, and it’s available with a neck rest option, we’d also recommend that you opt for armrests as supporting your arms can have a big impact on neck pain as well.  The neck rest is height and angle adjustable, but you can’t alter the depth of it as it’s a fixed curved shape.

The Orthapedica has an adjustable seat and back angle, which means that you can find your perfect sitting angle for maximum support. 

The Orthopaedica is available with a lead time of 3-5 days so if your neck pain needs helping now, this is a really good option.

RH Logic 220

This is the roll Royce of ergonomic chairs, which has a fantastic tension controlled movement system, this chair supports you from top to bottom.  The neck rest on this chair is really clever.  As well as being height adjustable it is flatter than a lot of chairs on the market, which means it doesn’t push your head forwards, but it can be adjusted in and out using dials on either side of the neck rest. 

The additional cost gives you more adjustability on the chair.  The chair has a movement system that can be tension controlled to suit your weight and allows you to almost float at your desk.  A movement system means that your muscles don’t get as stiff when you are sitting at a desk.  The chair has a firm seat, so if you like very soft padded chairs, this probably isn’t the one for you.  But with firmness comes a feeling of support.  It’s also a very upright chair, which has a straight back so if you don’t like lots of curves and pronounced lumbar support then this chair would work well.

The RH Logic 220 is available with a lead time of 7-10 days.

Orangebox Flo

This chair combines padding and support, so it’s a much softer sit but still has tension controlled movement system so you benefit from moving whilst sitting at your desk.  The neck rest can be angled out to provide more support and its height adjustable.

The Flo is really good for taller (and fuller figure) people as it’s got a really nice wide seat and width adjustable arms.  It also has a really good seat depth adjustment which means for taller people you get more support under your thighs.

The Flo is available with a lead time of 3-4 weeks.

As well as supporting your neck with a good chair, there are a couple of other products that can help with neck pain.

Looking down at a laptop, having your laptop flat on the desk can be fatal for your neck, the best thing to do is invest in a separate screen with an adjustable monitor arm, or use a laptop stand to get the screen higher up and a separate mouse and keyboard.

Leaning over to see documents on the desk.  By putting your notepad to the left of your keyboard (or right) you’re having to lean to read which is putting further strain on your neck.  Lift the documents so they are situated between your keyboard and screen. This puts them at a much better angle and reduces the need to hunch over so much.

Do a DSE Assessment

A DSE assessment will help to find any issues with your workstation set-up that could be causing neck pain. A simple thing like your monitor height being too low down could be what’s causing neck pain.

If you would like any advice or help with your workstation, contact us on 0330 332 0880 or email enquiries@posturepeople.co.uk.