by Melissa Muldoon
Nobody warns you when you set out to write a novel
that it could be detrimental to your health!
I found out the painful way!
During the past five years, I’ve been glued to my computer pounding out three novels set in Italy that celebrate art and creativity and tell the stories of women and their journeys of self-discovery.
In between all those book projects, to help people learn the Italian language, I actively write the dual Italian English language blog, Studentessa Matta, as well as curate the Art of Loving Italy site where I blog about Italian Art.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say the past five years have been “writing intense” for me.
When you add it all up over the past five years, I’ve spent a lot of time — I mean an EXTRAORDINARY amount of time — sitting in a chair writing on a computer. Sometimes, I’m up at dawn clacking away on the keyboard, only to shut down my laptop in the wee hours of the night.
What could go wrong, sitting in the comfort of my office, in a chair, doing something that I love?
Writers Don’t Have to Worry About Physical Danger—Or So I Thought
How could all this passion for telling stories affect my health? After all, writing is a serene profession — aside, that is, from the daily mental torments of trying to make your characters behave and create credible stories (but that’s a topic for a psychoanalyst).
Compared to other professionals, like police officers or firefighters who daily put themselves in harm’s way and things that could disable them — life as a writer is usually not threatened by guns or raging fires. Writers write about danger and violence, but on the whole, they are relatively risk-free of physical bodily danger — or so I thought.
So, what’s up with the tightness in my hips, weakness in my legs, and the pain in my thumb joints?
As it turns out, some serious problems come with a writer’s sedentary lifestyle. I first noticed this phenomenon, about a year ago, when standing up from my desk after a long period of writing, I was starting to hobble around like a 90-year-old woman!
Why Was I Suddenly Experiencing Pain in My Legs and Joints?
At first, I was mystified as to why I was suddenly experiencing symptoms of ligament stiffness in my legs and joint pain in my hip flexors. I thought it was a passing thing, that over time would go away on its own.
Why was I slow to realize the reason for my discomfort resulted from the hunched over posture I assumed when I was deep into writing my books?
At first, I was in denial. I figured it was a passing thing. After all, I was too young to worry about joint pain. I told myself things would improve on their own, so I upped my time in the gym thinking that would be the solution.
I’ve always considered myself an active person with lots of energy and work out on the elliptical trainer, lift weights, and do Yoga daily. At night I take long walks and when in Italy climb lots of steep hills!
I tried many things, but nothing seemed to help… and I began to worry.
I Tried Vitamins, Herbs, Coconut Oil, and the Keto Diet, and Nothing Helped
When the joint pain and the tightness of my ligaments continued to cause me to wince when I walked or cringe when I climbed the stairs — I really started to worry. I tried all kinds of remedies.
I increased my vitamin intake, started taking glucosamine and Boswellia Serrata extract, as well as tumeric and fish oil pills. I even began putting coconut oil into my coffee, turned to the keto diet, and invested in an ergonomic desk chair.
But, still, the problems persisted. Nothing seemed to help.
This turn of events, was not only cause for concern, but it began to depress me as well. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to have to stop writing to feel better.
And then I had a light bulb moment.
Because of All The Time Spent Writing, I Was Suffering from Premature Stiffening and Shortening of the Hip Flexors
A couple of months ago, I ran across this article in an Italian magazine that clearly explained my issues, and a light bulb went off in my head — or rather my derriere.
See that red area in the illustration above right at the point where the spinal column meets the hip flexors — that is precisely where the crux of my problem lay!
Because of a sedentary writer’s lifestyle, I was suffering from premature stiffening and shortening of the hip flexor muscles and leg ligaments.
Sitting day in and day out, for hours on end, in a bent over position was pushing my weight down onto my hip flexors, aggravating them, and causing unnecessary inflammation and joint pain.
Everything in the body is tied together, so over time, an unaligned spine can also put undue pressure on internal organs and tighten and shorten ligaments all over the body. From my neck to my thumb to my toes, my ligaments were being pulled so taut they were shrinking, thus limiting my mobility.
4 Hip and Joint Pain Solutions for Writers
I share this story with you because since having this revelation, I have found four excellent remedies that have significantly reversed my hip flexor issues and the tightness of my ligaments.
1. Removeable Lumbar Waist Brace
Wanting to sit up straighter in my chair, I purchased a flexible detachable lumbar brace to wear when I sit at the computer and write.
Now, before I begin my workday, I fasten it securely around my waist to give me more support. It wraps neatly — and kind of stylishly — around my waist and fastens with two heavy-duty Velcro closures.
I’m now training my body to sit up and even arch backward a bit, which lengthens my spine and lessens the pressure on the hip joints.
2. Hypervolt Hand-Held Massager
Thanks to my son, who suffers from muscle tightness due to sports injuries, I discovered the Hypervolt handheld percussion massage device.
It is used by professional athletes to alleviate their muscle pain and loosen ligaments.
When I started using this regularly on my arms, neck, sides, and lower back — even the balls of my feet — after a long writing session, I discovered that my symptoms of stiffness started to reverse. Even the pain in my thumb joint has gone away!
3. Walking
I’m walking more than ever before—up to 10,000+ steps per day. The extra movement has strengthened my lower back, helped shape up my legs, and has loosed up those tight hip flexors and calf muscles.
Walking is also incredibly cathartic. After a few hours of non-stop writing, it is a perfect way to clear my head and let my brain work out plot twists away from my desk.
4. Ping Pong (I kid you not!)
One more thing I’d like to share with you that has improved my mobility — is ping pong! It sounds kind of silly, but it works.
Playing a fast-paced game every night forces me to step away from my computer screen, stand up, stretch, and move around vigorously. This nightly practice has not only improved my flexibility, but it provides much-needed rest for my eyes and has improved my eye-hand coordination.
I believe adding these three things — the lumbar support, the muscle massager, and ping pong (as goofy as it sounds) — to my daily routine of usual workouts and yoga stretches, has significantly improved my overall health. Now I feel more agile, climb stairs, and walk without stiffness, and my hands are pain-free.
Once again, I feel like my old “young” self again and I’m back in the saddle — aka desk chair —writing without pain once again!
Yours in health and writing!
Note: Read Melissa’s previous post on Writing and Wellness here. For more information on how to ease hip pain, see our other post, “Why Writers Suffer from Hip Pain & How to Find Relief.”
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Melissa Muldoon is the author of three novels set in Italy. “Dreaming Sophia, ( 2017), “Waking Isabella” (2018), “Eternally Artemisia,” (2019) and “Il risveglio di Isabella” (2019). All three novels are available in print and epub and are soon to be released as Audio Books on Amazon, I-tunes and Audible Books. Visit Melissa’s Amazon Author page for more details.
She is currently working on her fourth novel based on the life of Sofonisba Anguissola – the first Renaissance female painter who was instructed by Michelangelo.
In between her book projects, she actively curates and writes the dual Italian English language blog Studentessa Matta, and the Italian Art Blog Art of Loving Italy.
Melissa’s most recent novel “Eternally Artemisia” is the imaginative telling of the life of Artemisia Gentileschi—the first prominent female who lived in the seventeenth-century artist, who was raped by her painting instructor and who took him to court, in an era when it was unheard of for a woman to do so. Woven together with themes of art therapy and bonds of loves between men and women so strong they repeat through time, the story transcends time, and proves, when we take control of our lives and find the thing we are most passionate about, we are limitless and can touch the stars.
For more information on all Melissa’s past and current projects, books and programs to study in Italy, visit her author website and Amazon Author page, or connect with her on Twitter, Pinterest, or YouTube.
Eternally Artemisia: They say some loves travel through time and are fated to meet over and over again. For Maddie, an art therapist, who wrestles with the “peculiar feeling” she has lived previous lives and is being called to Italy by voices that have left imprints on her soul, this idea is intriguing.
Despite her best efforts, however, proof of this has always eluded her. That is, until one illuminating summer in Italy when Maddie’s previous existences start to bleed through into her current reality. When she is introduced to the Crociani family—a noble clan with ties to the seventeenth-century Medici court that boasts of ancestors with colorful pasts—she finally meets the loves of her life.
One is a romantic love, and another is a special kind of passion that only women share, strong amongst those who have suffered greatly yet have triumphed despite it. As Maddie’s relationship develops with Artemisia Gentileschi—an artist who in a time when it was unheard of to denounce a man for the crime of rape, did just that—Maddie discovers a kindred spirit and a role model, and just what women are capable of when united together.
In a journey that arcs back to biblical days and moves forward in time, Maddie encounters artists, dukes, designers, and movie stars as well as baser and ignoble men. With Artemisia never far from her side, she proves that when we dare to take control of our lives and find the “thing” we are most passionate about, we are limitless and can touch the stars.
Available at Amazon.