Sitting, Posture, and what we can do about it

Many of us sit for far too long on a daily basis, and even those that don’t still typically have issues with their posture.

This is because it has never been natural for human beings to be stick their butts in chairs for hours on end each day. The problem stems from prolonged sitting causing our range of motion to tighten up and falls apart. Way to soon in life, we become achey and beat-up. And we typicaslly chalk all this up to aging. 

However, take a look at people in third world countries, where no matter how poor, and you’ll often see what is called the third world squat. These people, unfamiliar with chairs and the detriments of stagnation, can drop into a full squat, hips below parallel, and hold that position for hours. 

The point is, our modern day posture it is not natural.  We were simply not designed to be stiff, hunched over and full of aches and pains.. For anyone who sits at work, or even at home for more than a couple hours, there is a sense of urgency for re-learning proper body mechanics. 

One of the best ways to do this is to get up and move around at intervals throughout the day.. Get up and re-orient yourself every fifteen minutes or so, invest in a blue tooth headset and walk around while talking on the phone, integrate short exercises workouts (30 air squats every hour, for example) throughout the day. The NERDbody 2x4 challenge for example schedules four 2 minute activities to be done throughout each day. These activities focus on Mobility, Posture, Strength and Metabolism.  These are the four areas that really suffer for our sitting work and lifestyles.

We can also reduce the ill effects of sitting by improving our posture while sitting, and while standing. 

The ideal, neutral spine position can be reached in a series of steps. 

1st, stand with your feet parallel at shoulder width distance from each other. Gently screw your feet outward into the ground. Don’t change the position of your feet, but just imagine that you are rotating your knees and feet outward into the ground. Apply a little bit of force in this motion, just enough to feel some rotation. This translates to the next step.

2nd, squeeze your butt and keep your hips forward. In neutral spine, your butt should be slightly flexed. The act of screwing your feet into the ground can help with this. It also helps to imagine curling your toes downward. Most people will flex their butt instinctively when they do this. Don’t over-flex. The point is to activate the muscles, and that’s it. If you feel yourself flexing, that is enough. 

3rd, stabilize the torso. The best way to do this is to take a deep breath through the nose. When you breath in, you should feel your stomach and trunk expand first, creating a stable column. Now, as you exhale, keep the trunk stabilized and flat. Do not arch your back forward or backward. The spine should remain stable.

4th, pull your shoulders back without raising or lowering them. Just pull your shoulders backward toward the wall behind you without their height raising or lowering, or bend your back. Just think of the shoulders opening the collar bones.  Again, don’t over-do it. Just actively flex the shoulders back into position with a little bit of force. 

Finally, engage the back of your neck to keep your head in a neutral position. This should feel more natural with the shoulders back.

This is your neutral position. Whenever you can, this should be the position you come back to. Now, I will say this, it is nearly impossible for your body to hold any position efficiently for more than 20 minutes straight, even this one, but that is not the point. The point is to come back to the proper position whenever possible, and before sitting down. 

Speaking of sitting down, you should maintain as many elements as possible for this standing neutral spine when sitting down. 

It is best to gather yourself standing first, and then sit down. If you notice you are in a bad position while you are already sitting down, it’s easy to over-correct and create more bad positions if you try to do so without standing up. 

I like to imagine my body from the hip join upwards, and maintain that as I sit down. I can lean forward or backward on that hip joint, as long as everything above that stays neutral and rigid. 

Finally, regarding extended periods of time sitting, the general rule is that people should get up and re-orient their posture every 10 minutes or so. I encourage you to do this, but I understand that in many ways it just isn’t convenient. However, definitely get up and do some movement every hour, and if you can, add in some stretches or an exercise of some kind. 

It also helps if you can start your day with movement. This activates the lymphatic system and gives you a great, natural energy boost for the day, as well as breaking the pattern of having slept in the same position overnight.