Desk Warriors: Your Guide to Pain Free Work
Alright, everybody—how are you? Dr. Fedich here from Village Family Clinic. Hopefully, you’re all tuning in and taking another minute to settle in. Hopefully, we’re all here and getting ready for this cool presentation.
Today is a free presentation: Desk Warriors – Your Guide to Pain-Free Work. We know many of us are working from home nowadays, and this applies to home offices as well as general workplace environments. We’re going to start a dedicated work-from-home series soon, but this presentation definitely applies to desk jobs in general.
We’re going to start in just a moment. I’ve got a pen and paper with some cool stuff to share. This isn’t just theory—this is real, practical information that we use in our workplace every day. Hopefully, I hit the record button so we can share this with anyone who couldn’t make it.
I know it’s kind of an awkward time of day with work-from-home schedules. Everyone has different routines, so coordinating these things can be tricky. If you have suggestions for better times, we’re definitely open to that.
We’ll get started shortly. I’ve got my pad and paper, and we’ll be talking about how to keep your desk a pain-free zone.
One of the most common injuries we see here in the clinic is repetitive stress injuries. When people think of injuries, they usually think of car accidents, falls, or broken bones—and we certainly do treat car accidents (I treated three or four just this morning). However, what we see most in today’s workforce are repetitive stress injuries.
Doing the same thing over and over—typing, working at a desk, slicing, or performing repetitive hand movements—we see far more of these injuries than traumatic ones. Patients often come in and say, “I didn’t hurt my back. I didn’t do anything crazy. I wasn’t in a car wreck.” And that’s usually true.
In modern life, it’s often sitting the wrong way at a desk for hours and hours. I had a new patient this morning who commutes to Newark and sits in a car for up to ten hours a day. That’s a repetitive stress injury. It’s not one big incident—it’s small stresses building up over time.
That’s what we’re talking about today. This will be real, practical information—stretches you can do at home and guidance on how to set up your workstation. This isn’t just talk or theory.
Let’s give it another minute to allow people to sign in. I see a few more folks joining now. Thanks so much for being here for this free Zoominar.
Most of you here are patients, but if you’re not, feel free to share this recording with friends and family. A little about myself: I was born and raised right up the street in Mount Olive, New Jersey. If you’re not a patient, you may not know that I’m 6’5”, so I played a lot of basketball and sports growing up.
When I was younger, we were driving to a family wedding in upstate New York when someone ran a stop sign and hit our car. All four of us were hospitalized—my parents, my brother, and me. There were concussions, broken ribs, and punctured lungs. Most of us recovered well, but I had a pretty serious back injury.
The impact hit my side of the car. I remember coming home from school and lying on the floor for hours, unable to move. I couldn’t play basketball or do much of anything. Medical doctors weren’t helping much, but my grandmother had seen a chiropractor years earlier. I went, and within weeks, I was back to normal after months of pain.
We had a career paper due at school, and I didn’t want to be an engineer like my dad. The chiropractor helped me so much that I thought it was the coolest thing. I even shadowed him for a day when I was 13 and decided that’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
We’re now coming up on our 22nd year in practice. We opened in 2004. We were across the street at Panther Valley Mall for about ten years and have been at our current location for about twelve.
I’ve written several books. This is my best-selling book: Yes, You Can Live a Pain-Free Life. If you don’t have a copy, let me know.
That’s my wife and kids. My wife and I have been married 13, going on 14, years. My daughter Scarlett is 10—almost 11—but going on 16 if you know middle school girls. My son Britton is 7, almost 8, and in second grade. Scarlett is a golf maniac, and my son is all about basketball, baseball, and football.
Alright, now—let’s get into the presentation.
Ergonomics is what this is all about. “Ergo” is a Greek word meaning work. Ergonomics is the study of how humans interact with their workplace—how people get injured at work and how to correct those problems.
Today, it’s far more common to see people with back pain from desk work than from car accidents or falls. That’s what we’re focusing on.
Think about the problems you might be experiencing: neck pain, stiffness, lower back pain, wrist pain. Where are you working? Many people tell me they’re working from bed or the couch. What equipment are you using? Laptops on tables without proper setups are very common.
What kind of work are you doing—typing, using a mouse, performing repetitive tasks? And what season is it? Right now, it’s extremely cold in New Jersey, and cold makes muscles tighter. I’ve had patients working from closets, bedrooms—just about everywhere.
All of these factors matter.
Office ergonomics involves typing, phone use, posture, and sitting. Sitting eight hours a day—plus commuting, plus sitting on the couch at night—adds up. Sitting improperly can be extremely damaging to the spine.
Repetitive stress injuries come from small, repeated motions over time. It’s not the big fall—it’s the slow buildup. That’s where most injuries come from today.
Common areas affected include fingers, wrists, arms, shoulders, neck, and upper back. Many people think they have carpal tunnel, but most don’t. True carpal tunnel only affects the thumb, index, and middle fingers through the median nerve.
If numbness involves other fingers or travels up the arm, it’s usually a neck or shoulder issue. Proper evaluation is critical.
We also need to understand some basic anatomy: joints, ligaments, tendons, muscles, and nerves. Nerves control muscles, muscles pull tendons, and tendons move joints. If the nerve isn’t working properly, nothing else functions correctly.
Symptoms of repetitive stress injury can include pain, numbness, tingling, weakness, temperature sensitivity, fatigue, and loss of coordination. Interestingly, pain is often the last symptom to appear.
Aches and throbbing usually indicate muscle issues, while sharp, burning pain—or numbness and tingling—typically points to nerve problems. Understanding the type of pain helps us pinpoint the cause.
Common conditions include tendonitis—like tennis elbow or golfer’s elbow—carpal tunnel syndrome, muscle spasms, trigger points, headaches, neck pain, and fatigue. Did you know that nine out of ten headaches actually come from the neck due to forward head posture?
So, how do we fight repetitive stress injuries?
We type properly, take regular breaks, improve ergonomics, and stretch. Breaks are critical. Find out how long you can work before symptoms appear, subtract about ten minutes, and take a short break at that interval. Breaks don’t hurt productivity—they actually improve it.
Proper workstation setup is essential. Monitor height, chair support, keyboard position, wrist angle, and hip and knee alignment—all of these matter.
Your eyes should look slightly downward at the screen, about 15 degrees. Wrists should be in a neutral, slightly flexed position. Ears should align over your shoulders. Knees should be level with—or slightly above—your hips. This is huge for preventing lower back pain.
This same setup applies to your car seat as well.
We also covered some easy workstation stretches: shoulder shrugs, back arches, shoulder blade squeezes, neck stretches, seated spinal twists, wrist prayer stretches, reverse wrist presses, and grip exercises. These take just a couple of minutes and require no equipment.
Remember, bad posture doesn’t just cause pain—it can reduce heart and lung function and increase serious health risks over time.
X-rays show how poor posture can straighten the natural curve of the neck, leading to worn vertebrae and pinched nerves over time. This is something we can help correct.
The key is to change bad habits: adjust your setup, take breaks, and stretch. Avoid relying on painkillers—Tylenol is actually the leading cause of liver failure in the U.S.
Chiropractic care helps people stay at work, miss less time, and recover without surgery or drugs.
If you’re a new patient and mention this seminar, we’ll offer a free workplace injury evaluation (normally $150) for a limited time.
You can call, text, or email us:
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Phone: (908) 813-8200
We’re located at 1500 Route 517, Allamuchy, New Jersey, just off Route 80, Exit 19.
That’s the end of today’s presentation. Thank you all for tuning in, and hopefully the recording worked. If you have questions, feel free to reach out.
