The Welcome Post

Welcome to the shiny brand new blog dedicated to the office workspace and video gaming lifestyle.

There are so many reasons why these topics are relevant in our society, but here are a couple of my big reasons for starting FTW!

• Patient notes are my life- Being a Chiropractor in this day and age my life is consumed by doing patient notes and paperwork. Naturally, I’m at a desk for extended periods of time and have begun to notice how taxing it is to be sitting for prolonged periods.
• I still enjoy playing video games- Video games have always been a significant part of my life. I use them to relax and keep connected with friends I have all over the U.S.
• The Rise of Esports- In the past couple years the rise of Esports aka professional gaming has exploded. The athletes practice 8+ hours a day at a computer and then compete for hours on end as well. The motions they are performing are game dependent but can range from thousands of clicks to held down button combinations for extended periods of time. These motions can manifest into overuse injuries we see in the typical sports.
• Desk worker injuries- A high percentage of the workforce has become sedentary during the workday, increasing the number of overuse injuries or RSI (repetitive strain/stress injuries) being reported by the medical field. I wanted to create a place where people suffering from this could get knowledge on the subject and help better their lives.

As a society more and more of us have become 8-10 hour desk workers or spend a vast majority of our time at our desk throughout the workday. We obviously were not built to endure this new posture for these extended amounts of time. The typical workday may not seem like it can take a toll on you when you are young, but it adds up. Let's take a look.

A typical workday of 8 hours to 40 hours a week to 50 weeks of work throughout the year (any more time off than that and I’m envious of you). Now, we have 2000 hours/24 hours in a day= 83.333 total days of sitting, which doesn’t include all the time we sit at home, driving, eating, etc. That's a heck of a lot of time in the same position and putting a strain on tissues that were not built for this type of stress load. If we compound this by multiple years with the same repetitive motions, it begins to take a severe toll on the body. More often than not the tissues that are receiving the brunt of the load are structures that were not designed to take on such stress.

These repetitive injuries present as some of the following symptoms: hand numbness or tingling, headaches at the end of the day, low back pain, shoulder tightness, or cramping of the hands just to name a few. If you have just read the above and said to yourself check, check, and check then this blog is meant for you.

My objective for this initial post was to give you a foundation for why this blog is relevant not only to me but how it can help you better your life. In the upcoming months, I’ll be discussing topics from proper ergonomics and equipment to treatment of the common injuries. Any questions or topics you all want to hear about feel free to leave them in the comments.

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Have a great day,

Dr. Drew FTW!