Stress and involuntary muscle activity

Due to huge changes in technology, our world has changed beyond recognition and so have our lifestyles. The stress that modern humans experience is very different from the stresses that pre-historic men were exposed to, and yet, our bodies have hardly evolved and react in exactly the same way. The functioning of our major bodily systems is based on the same processes. This may be one of the reasons why we become sick with musculoskeletal disorders.

Something nature has not prepared us for ...

When a pre-historic man was spotted by a lion he did not want to be turned into a lunch. He would quickly establish whether he could defend himself or whether he should run. It is called the “fight or flight response”. You either fight or run away. If he thought he could not fight the lion, his brain would immediately send signals to his muscles to get ready to run. His muscles would contract, adrenaline and other stress hormones would get released into his blood stream to make him more physically resilient. He would now run as fast as he could to escape. If he was lucky he would find himself in a hide away and relax. His muscles would now release and rest, get ample oxygen and nutrients.

When you work in the office, you not only stay static most of the day, which is particularly hard on your muscles, but you may also be busy working to a deadline. You may have to work at a faster pace than that which you are comfortable with. You may not be in control of your working environment, especially if you work in a large open-plan office and have to cope with noise and constant supervision. Not even realising, you may be experiencing stress and so your brain will be sending messages to you muscles to be constantly flexed. You are not asking your muscles to work, they do it involuntarily. Since the working day is long, they stay flexed for a long time, without ample chance to relax properly. Given that our bodies still display the “fight or flight response”, you are ready to run away from that deadline, but this is not how our society works. The pressure is pretty constant, there is a deadline after a deadline and your brain keeps shooting messages to your muscles to tense up. You are experiencing excessive involuntary muscle activity. The muscles around the neck, back and shoulders take the biggest strain and this is why many of us suffer pain there. This pressures are just longer term than what the nature has prepared us for. Finally, your muscles have memory. If they are flexed for such long hours, day in and day out, they may forget how to relax. Some muscle fibres can tighten up long-term creating so called trigger points . Those can cause pressure on nerves and little blood vessels and your body may hurt. This pain is most likely to happen around your upper back, neck and shoulders (all around the shoulder blades) and upper arms.

The technology is here to stay and so are the pressures of living in a modern society. We can not change that but we can adapt ourselves to be able to live healthily and happily in today's world. The targeted exercise in our Computer User Exercise programme is also a relaxation technique and can help break the involuntary muscle reaction to stress. It teaches you to keep your muscles calm. The programme also contains a variety of targeted stretches, which can help lengthen and relax your muscles.