Have a Lean Body, But Poor Posture? It May Be Your Computer Habits
I got a question from a reader today regarding proper posture while sitting at the computer. It's actually a great question, and something often overlooked by those who sit at the computer for work or fun for hours on end.
If you're sitting at the computer for more than an hour at a time, you're putting yourself at risk of developing injuries of the hand/arm, shoulder, neck, and back. Obviously these injuries don't occur immediately. They take time to form, due to gradual adaptation of your body to unnatural position. Essentially you're molding your body.
That being said, there are things you can do to counteract any problems from cropping up. Here are a few things that I do, that you could easily incorporate...
1) Strength training the abdominal muscles and lower back muscles.
2) Take a break every 30 minutes. Stand up, walk around, shake your body out and get a glass of water.
3) Stretch the hamstrings (back of the leg) and quadriceps (front of the leg) lightly. Sitting for long periods of time causes some tightness in the legs which can lead to lower back tightness or pain.
4) Take some deep breaths that fill your lower abdomen (stomach). Often while sitting at the computer for long periods of time, people tend to lean forward or slouch, leading to more shallow breaths and reduced oxygen intake.
7) Foam roller. I love this thing. I foam- roll my full body twice per day and sometimes more if I'm sitting for long periods of time. Here's the one I use at home. I got it at Perform Better. Here's a quick tutorial from Power Systems on how to use it
8) Arrange your work station properly. I'm not a work station expert, so I'll leave you with Cornell Universities' Ergonomic Guidelines for Arranging a Computer Workstation- 10 Steps for Users.
Keep in mind, you may have a lean body, but if you've got bad posture, it offsets the entire presentation.
If you're sitting at the computer for more than an hour at a time, you're putting yourself at risk of developing injuries of the hand/arm, shoulder, neck, and back. Obviously these injuries don't occur immediately. They take time to form, due to gradual adaptation of your body to unnatural position. Essentially you're molding your body.
That being said, there are things you can do to counteract any problems from cropping up. Here are a few things that I do, that you could easily incorporate...
1) Strength training the abdominal muscles and lower back muscles.
2) Take a break every 30 minutes. Stand up, walk around, shake your body out and get a glass of water.
3) Stretch the hamstrings (back of the leg) and quadriceps (front of the leg) lightly. Sitting for long periods of time causes some tightness in the legs which can lead to lower back tightness or pain.
4) Take some deep breaths that fill your lower abdomen (stomach). Often while sitting at the computer for long periods of time, people tend to lean forward or slouch, leading to more shallow breaths and reduced oxygen intake.
5) Sit up straight with chin up. If possible, have your screen on level with your eye- line to avoid jutting your head out, leading to stress in the neck and spine.
6) Sit on a swiss ball (stability ball). I only use it once in a while, but some people swear by it. Sitting on the stability ball forces your body to contract the posture muscles so that you don't fall over. It also strengthens the "core" muscles.
7) Foam roller. I love this thing. I foam- roll my full body twice per day and sometimes more if I'm sitting for long periods of time. Here's the one I use at home. I got it at Perform Better. Here's a quick tutorial from Power Systems on how to use it
8) Arrange your work station properly. I'm not a work station expert, so I'll leave you with Cornell Universities' Ergonomic Guidelines for Arranging a Computer Workstation- 10 Steps for Users.
Keep in mind, you may have a lean body, but if you've got bad posture, it offsets the entire presentation.
Labels: avoiding posture problems, developing injuries at the computer, posture, proper posture at the computer
posted by Michael Collins @ 2:32 PM
1 Comments:
At December 8, 2008 12:21 AM ,
:E said...
I concur with Mike completely. I'm a prime example of the "lean body/Nintendo posture" paradigm. It doesn't help that a hunched over, caveman posture really helps you in MMA (to shoot in to achieve that perfect uchi mata throw while warding off those muay thai elbow strikes).
Cest la vie.
I'd like to offer up a couple more pointers so the reader doesn't have to end up a cautionary tale, like me:
9) Strengthen the scapular retractors - "Sit up straight!" The muscles that control trunk posture? The scapular retractors - trapezius, rhomboids, etc. - allow you to pull back your shoulder blades, bringing you into "proud chest" position. In sedentary folks, there's considerable weakness and atrophy in these muscles. A judicious dose of heavy rows and reverse flyes (or rear delt raises) can work wonders for improving the strength of the retractors. Of course, we can get seriously fancy and do things like the Hise shrug to hit the scapular retractors hard, but seldom-seen and esoteric exercises are the subject of a later blog post...
10) Stretch the internal rotators - the two largest, strongest muscles in the torso (latissimus dorsi and pectoralis major) both function as internal rotators of the humerus. Translated into plain English, this means that when the lats and pecs get tight, your shoulders get pulled forward and your upper back rounds - voila, instant "Nintendo posture!"
It's easy to counteract this by applying a couple of easy stretches.
The door stretch. Simply stand in the middle of a doorway, position your arms out to your sides at shoulder height, hold onto the doorjamb, and lean forward slowly. Hold the stretch for a few seconds, then lean back.
The swimmer stretch. Stand with your hands clasped together behind your back, retract your shoulder blades ("pinch an orange between your shoulder blades") and push your hands down towards the floor. It's ok to arch your back slightly. Hold for a few seconds, then release.
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