Self-preservation for conservators: BAACG’s webinar with a physical therapist

by Katherine Langdon

3/23/32025

On March 8, BAACG welcomed a virtual guest speaker to help us address a pernicious aspect of our work—art conservation is hard on the body! Maintaining our bodies is usually secondary to our professional training and performing our work tasks, but repetitive stress injuries catch up to us sooner or later, making it harder to stay capable in both our personal and professional pursuits. To help us begin to manage this imbalance, we turned to Vangie Ventura, a physical therapist and yoga instructor, for help.

Vangie taught Zoom attendees to understand the nature of our common injuries and led us through numerous exercises designed to stave off injuries and pain, decompress nerves, and condition ourselves to handle demanding static poses. Some attendees contributed their own tips, too.

A major point we kept returning to is that good postures and stretches should become habits. (Vangie recommended consciously resetting yourself into neutral postures 5 times an hour!) I know that for me, learning these techniques once (or even 5 times) wouldn’t be enough to make them  stick, so I made sure to take notes that would be a handy guide to review as I slowly build muscle memory and good habits.

Here they are!

(Tip: illustrations of most of the exercises can be found with a Google search!)

Types of common repetitive strain injuries discussed:

• Neck/shoulder pain

• Tendinitis/tendinopathy

• Carpal tunnel syndrome

• Lower back pain

Treatment and management of repetitive stress:

• Recognize and react to early signs and symptoms to prevent chronic injuries

• Do regular strength & mobility exercises

• Maintain good posture

• Take breaks, pace your work

• Use ergonomic aids & tools, adjust your workstation

• Talk to your physicians or seek help from a licensed physical therapist for help with your specific ailments!

  • Hand and wrist injuries are usually addressed by specialized occupational therapists.

Postures, exercises, and tips for preventing and managing repetitive stress injuries:

Neutral postures: 

Get in the habit of resetting posture 5x per hour with these (good for neck, shoulders, whole spinal column):

• Neutral standing posture

  • Weight on balls of feet

  • Micro-bend in knees

  • Quads engaged

  • Upper back and neck straight, head above spinal column, shoulders naturally sit further back

  • (this feels like you’re leaning forward if you’re not in this habit already, but it actually keeps you straight rather than leaning back)

• Neutral sitting posture

  • Tilt pelvis so sitting forward on sitz bones (this encourages the rest of the posture)

  • Upper back and neck straight, head above spinal column, shoulders naturally sit further back

  • Aid by keeping feet flat on floor, pretending you’re in neutral standing posture

  • Keep hips elevated above knees

• "Helium balloon" head

• “Chin tuck” neutral neck posture

Neck and shoulders:

• (All of the neutral postures listed above)

• Exercises:

  • pulling taffy (rotator cuff, core)

  • morning prayer/ "W"

  • Push-up-plus

  • Cat yoga pose

  • Self-massage head and neck to loosen fascia on cranium

  • Trapezius stretch (esp. with strap/towel)

• To lean over your work, hinge at hips, keep neutral chin-tuck posture 

• Tips for sustainably working with headgear (respirators, head loupes, etc.):

  • conditioning (strength training) can be done by practicing chin tuck while lying on a flat surface such as table with head off the side, face up and face down

  • Hinge at hips, keep neutral chin-tuck posture while leaning (limit sessions or take a break for stretches at 45 minutes w/ headgear)

  • Take frequent stretch breaks, pace work

  • Consider using a neck brace

  • Keep straps as loose as you can to avoid developing sensitivity, and/or add padding to distribute pressure

  • P-DTR therapy to help with nerve receptor dysfunction 

Hands/wrists:

• Use neutral hand posture

• Keep grip as loose as you can

  • Pad tools with grippy materials to allow for looser grip

• Practice using full range of motion in all planes for wrist, elbow, and shoulders

  • (many exercises demonstrated too quickly to document)

  • Tendon glides

  • Nerve flossing

• Consider using wrist brace during work or while at rest

Lower back:

• Neutral standing posture

• Lift with functional squat/hip hinge posture, keep weight of object close to your body

• Exercises/stretches:

  • Functional squats/chair pose

  • Hip flexors stretches

  • Gluteal stretches

  • Repeated extensions (use hands behind hips & push hips forward)