Learn Hardcore Russian: После долгой работы за компьютером у меня болит спина и шея. - After a long time working at the computer, my back and neck hurt.

После долгой работы за компьютером у меня болит спина и шея.
- Uses a noun phrase: after long work at the computer.
- More compact, a bit more neutral/standard.
После того, как я долго работал за компьютером, у меня болит спина и шея.
- Uses a clause: after I worked at the computer for a long time.
- Sounds a bit more explicit and “sentence-like”.

Meaning-wise, they’re very close. The original uses the more typical Russian pattern после + noun (in genitive) instead of a full clause.

Why is it за компьютером and not на компьютере?

The preposition за with the instrumental case is commonly used to mean “at (a place where you sit and work/eat/etc.)”.

за столом – at the table
за партой – at the school desk
за рулём – at the wheel
за компьютером – at the computer

So за компьютером means “sitting/working at the computer”.

На компьютере is also possible, but it usually means “on the computer (as a device, using it)” in a more abstract or technical sense:

играть на компьютере – to play on the computer
работать на компьютере – to work on the computer (also common)

In your sentence, за компьютером emphasizes your physical position: sitting at the computer for a long time, which fits well with back and neck pain.

What case is компьютером and why does it end in -ом?

Компьютером is in the instrumental case.

Masculine nouns ending in a consonant usually form the instrumental singular with -ом:

стол → столом
компьютер → компьютером

After the preposition за, when you mean a static location at/behind something (table, desk, computer, etc.), Russian uses за + instrumental:

за столом – at the table
за компьютером – at the computer

Why do we say у меня болит спина instead of something like я болею спиной?

Russian expresses “I have pain in X / my X hurts” with a special construction:

у + (person in genitive) + болит / болят + body part

Literally, it’s like “at me the back hurts”:

у меня болит спина – my back hurts
у него болит голова – his head hurts
у нас болят ноги – our legs hurt

Saying я болею спиной is wrong; болеть with a person as the subject usually means “to be ill” (in general or with some disease):

я болею – I am ill
он болеет гриппом – he has the flu

For body parts hurting, stick with у меня болит/болят + body part.

Why is there no word for “my” (моя) before спина and шея?

In Russian, with body parts and close relationships, the possessive pronoun (мой, твой, его…) is often omitted when it’s obvious whose part it is.

Because you already have у меня, it is clear that the back and neck belong to you:

у меня болит спина и шея
Literally: at me the back and neck hurt → my back and neck hurt.

You could say:

у меня болит моя спина и шея – grammatically possible, but sounds redundant and unnatural here.

Use мой/моя/моё/мои with body parts when you need to contrast or emphasise:

Это не моя рука. – That’s not my arm.
У меня болит именно моя левая нога. – It’s specifically my left leg that hurts.

Why is the verb болит in the singular when we have two nouns: спина и шея? Shouldn’t it be болят?

From a strict grammar point of view, two subjects joined by и (and) normally take a plural verb:

спина и шея болят – the back and neck hurt.

However, in real spoken Russian, with body parts and similar “paired” or related items, it’s very common to use the singular verb, especially when they are perceived as one problem area:

у меня болит спина и шея – very natural in everyday speech.

You will also hear:

болит голова и горло – my head and throat hurt
болит живот и поясница – my stomach and lower back hurt

For learners, the “safe” textbook choice is:

у меня болят спина и шея.

But be aware that болит спина и шея is very common colloquially and sounds natural to natives.

Can I change the word order, for example: «Спина и шея болят у меня после долгой работы за компьютером»?

Yes. Russian word order is relatively flexible and usually changes emphasis, not basic meaning.

Some possible variants (all correct):

После долгой работы за компьютером у меня болит спина и шея.
Neutral, cause/time first, then the result.
У меня после долгой работы за компьютером болит спина и шея.
Slightly more focus on “I have this problem”.
Спина и шея у меня болят после долгой работы за компьютером.
Emphasizes back and neck as the topic.
Спина и шея болят у меня после долгой работы за компьютером.
Also fine; puts болят earlier, highlighting the action/state of hurting.

All are understandable; choice depends on what you want to stress.

Why is it долгой работы and not длинной работы? Aren’t both “long”?

English “long” corresponds to two different Russian words:

длинный – long in physical length (objects, lines, distances)
- длинная дорога – a long road
- длинные волосы – long hair
долгий – long in time / duration
- долгий фильм – a long film
- долгий разговор – a long conversation
- долгая работа – work that lasts a long time

Here we’re talking about working for a long time, so Russian uses долгой работы (long-lasting work), not длинной работы.

Is the sentence talking about the present or the past? Болит looks like present, but we have после.

Болит is present tense: it describes your current state – your back and neck hurt now.

The phrase после долгой работы за компьютером puts this present state in time relation to a past activity: after long work at the computer.

So the meaning is:

Right now, my back and neck hurt, and this is the situation *after working at the computer for a long time.*

If you wanted to describe something that hurt in the past, you would use past tense:

После долгой работы за компьютером у меня болела спина и шея.
– My back and neck were hurting / hurt (then) after working at the computer for a long time.

Can I drop у меня and just say «болит спина и шея после долгой работы за компьютером»?

Yes, grammatically you can:

Болит спина и шея после долгой работы за компьютером.

This sounds like a general statement or a neutral description, not necessarily about you. It could mean:

The back and neck hurt after working at the computer for a long time. (in general)

When you add у меня, it clearly becomes personal:

После долгой работы за компьютером у меня болит спина и шея.
– My back and neck hurt.

How would I say “My back and neck hurt from working at the computer for a long time” (emphasising cause, not just time)?

To emphasise cause, Russian often uses от or из-за:

от (from, due to – neutral, often physical cause):
- У меня болит спина и шея от долгой работы за компьютером.
  My back and neck hurt from long work at the computer.
из-за (because of – often with a nuance of “because of something bad / unfortunate”):
- У меня болит спина и шея из-за долгой работы за компьютером.
  My back and neck hurt because of long work at the computer.

Compare:

после долгой работы – focuses on time: after a long period of work.
от / из-за долгой работы – focuses on cause: because of that long work.

All three variants are correct; the nuance changes slightly depending on what you want to highlight.