hello! I saw the post that you made about how to take care of your wrists/hands if you've spent a long time drawing (which I found very helpful, thank you!) and was just wondering if anyone might know how to the same thing but with how to ease strain on your back if you're hunched up over a desk for long periods of time? This happens a lot to me and another person I know and I just thought I might ask. If you've no advice on this topic, that's fine too! I was just curious.
Hello pyersiki,I’m sorry to hear about your back pain, I can empathise a lot with you on this subject as I too regularly experience back pain from working long hours at a desk. This has lead me to se seen multiple professionals, and talked with fellow animators about my back pain, and by following their advice my pain has greatly subsided.First of all, I think it’s very important to say that I am not a medical expert, and I can only tell you the generic advice that’s helped me personally. If possible I do recommend that you see a medical expert to help with your pain and give you far more specific advice.
Now that that’s out of the way, this is generic self care advice for most people that hunch over desks for long hours. From one artist to another, here’s 6 pieces of of advice to help this sort of back pain.
1) stay hydrated. A great tip that an animation teacher of mine told me is to always keep a bottle or cup of water by your workspace. There are multiple reasons for doing this.
A) It keeps your the muscles of your body (including your brain) hydrated. It’s obvious that staying hydrated is important, it will help reduce muscle cramping, help avoid headaches and improve your overall mental productivity.
B) It will keep you moving. You will regularly be reaching for sips of your water, which already gets your body moving in a different way. You’ll get up to refill your glass, and you will also take breaks to go to the bathroom. If you’re standing up and walking every now and then it will put less strain on your back muscles.
This leads to the next point…
2) You should not hold the same position for more than 45 minutes at a time. Even just standing up once ever 30-45 minutes and walking around your chair once will help reduce that back pain greatly. That glass of water trick will help this, but try to make sure you’re not staying still for long hours on end. Take breaks, try to do those [hand stretches] while standing, or stand after you’re finished for a quick movement break.
3) make sure you’re sitting on your chair properly.
Here’s how you should be sitting at your computer:
4) Do stretches.you’re having trouble with upper back pain, google ‘stretches to relieve upper back pain’, have a look for some videos, images, blog posts. Try a method each night for a week or longer and see if it’s working for you. If you’re having trouble with lower back pain (this is the pain that I experience most often) do the exact same thing. google ‘stretches for lower back pain’ and try it out.The generic stretches that my chiropractor has advised me to do is these specific ones:
I do them every night before bed, weather it’s 11pm, 2am of 4am it literally takes 5 minutes and it has helped me so much. I wake up feeling so much better. I’ve recommended these exact stretches to friends also, but please pay attention to the advice given “hold only stretches that feel good to you. Do not overstretch.”
5) Do something other than draw.I’m serious. Do some kind of sport, weather it’s swimming, martial arts, hiking, start juggling, walking places instead of driving, anything at all will help. I’ve heard that yoga, tai chi and similar sports are particularly excellent for relieving back and muscle tension. Going for frequent walks is also excellent (and completely free). Get your body moving in different ways, and give your mind a break from that stress. Exercising will physically release toxins from your body, and stretching afterwards (and before) will help release those toxins from your muscles. Exercising also helps lower anxiety because it gets many hormones and toxins out of your system. It also helps one regulate a sleep cycle.
6) Get Enough sleep and Get off your computer at least an hour before going to sleep.This is probably one we’ve heard time and time again, but it’s absolutely true, and I’ll give you a number of reasons why.
A) Your body needs to get a decent number of hours of sleep each night because, it will give your mind time to rest, it will help you process the information you have learnt from the day, it will physically give your back time to straighten out and relax after a long day’s work.
B) Turn off your computer at LEAST an hour before going to sleep. This is because it reduces stress. The light from your computer is similar to that of natural daylight, and it will confuse your natural body clock. Your body needs time to wind down and start relaxing, so that when you go to sleep your muscles don’t remain tense. If your muscles are tense while you sleep you may very well wake up still experiencing back pain.
One final reminder that I am not a trained medical professional, but these are the very best tips I have picked up about this sort of thing over the years. These tricks have definitely helped me, so I hope that they help you also.I do recommend to see a medical expert if and when possible for more specific advice, especially if back pain persists, this goes for any artist/animator.
Take care of your body, and your body will take care of you.
All Image sources:1) Glass of water [source]2) Person sitting on chair [source](for the record, This page ^ gives a lot more information on Back&Neck pain).3) Good computer posture example [source]4) Stretches for lower back pain. Source © is on image.
areudirty
discoholicmusic
pixelskylines
romaincrisis
gummygunk
vaporwave
