Chester’s Mentoring Initiative

January 2023

Our featured speaker was Adrienne Pinckney, Program Director of Widener University’s Institute for Physical Therapy Education, who provided self-care tips to use and share. Her insights included the following:

  • We must all stay cognizant of our bodies to prevent injury and promote wellness.

  • Our bodies are not built for hours of sitting or holding any one position for long stretches. When you are slumping, feeling fatigue and notice your head rolling forward, it’s time to move around. Stand, stretch and move around as much as you can so that when you return to sitting, you can maintain good posture (with shoulder blades back and body upright.)

  • Sitting for 8+ hours per day has proven to be analogous to smoking several packs of cigarettes each day, from a health perspective. Try not to sit for more than 30 minutes at any one time.

  • Be creative about building more movement into your life. Schedule walking meetings when possible. Set notifications on your phone reminding you to move, and even to breathe deeply.

  • Things around your house can promote your wellness without having to invest in a gym membership or consumer products. Use cans of soup as free weights. Use frozen peas as icepacks. Use books as a platform to bring your computer screen to meet your line of sight. (It may be worth buying a $15 keyboard to have it separate from your screen, creating better computer ergonomics.)

  • Computer ergonomics and stress are the two biggest factors in neck pain.

    • Tightened shoulders is a common response to stress. Be mindful of your muscles and your body positioning. Be deliberate about relaxing.

    • Make sure your head isn’t protruding to see your computer screen. Consider changing chairs and using a footrest (or textbooks on the floor) for better posture. A small adjustment can help set everything else in place.

  • When bending, our bodies aren’t designed to put much load on our lower back. Use hips and knees when bending, especially when lifting. Keep a wide base of support and squat as best as you can to minimize the load on your spine.

  • Too much load on our lower back can lead to some small movement like a sneeze causing a spine problem that can cascade into chronic issues.

  • If you aren’t sleeping well, get more exercise and resist the urge to nap as that will just disrupt your appropriate nighttime pattern.

  • Our natural reaction to the pandemic, a time of great concern about our health, was walking. Keep it up!

Adrienne’s slides are below. Flip through to see diagrams of posture, the frame that holds everything together.