Treadmill work stations reduce muscle pain

Toronto: Treadmill work stations can make office work a lot more comfortable as they can help reduce neck and shoulder muscle pain associated with computer work, says a new study.

"Even though office workers may not naturally see it that way, their body is basically their work instrument, just as it is for an athlete," said one of the researchers Julie Cote from McGill University in Canada.

"It can get injured in similar ways and for similar reasons: overuse of certain muscles," Cote said.

Typing while walking can reduce muscle activity in the neck and shoulder, showed the findings published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology.

For the study, the researchers asked participants to complete a 90-minute typing task while walking or sitting, while they measured muscle activity in the neck, shoulders, forearms, wrists and lower back.

The researchers discovered that there was lower but more variable neck and shoulder muscle activity when participants were walking compared with sitting, all of which translates into less discomfort.

Researchers have estimated that muscular and skeletal stresses and pains would affect one in ten office workers at some point in their careers.

"Whether you are a computer worker or a middle-distance runner, injuries happen when you tense a particular muscle or group of muscles for too long, and the blood cannot flow into the region as it should and regenerate the muscles," Cote said.

"Bodies are made to move," she said.