Your chair is beating the hell out of you

Remember how your Mom used to yell at you at the dinner table to stop slouching? She was right. I bet she wouldn’t like the way you sit at your desk either.

A study by Canon UK found that the average desk dweller sits in their chair the equivalent of 34 weeks per year. That is not a typo. A number of people think that buying a $900 chair makes this OK. It probably helps, but it does not compensate for the effects of sitting, especially when you add bad posture to the mix.

You have muscles that run from your low back to the upper part of your legs called psoas, also known as hip flexors. They are what allow you lift your knee up (hip flexion). Try that movement right now and notice what it mimics: your legs in the sitting position. So, if you were to maintain this position for 5-6 hours per day, the muscles naturally begin to shorten and you lose flexibility.

Shortened hip flexors can cause you to lean forward when standing, which places undue pressure on your lower back as well as other arthokinematic distortions. Click here to see a detailed video of the mechanics of how this works. Your body will compensate for it, but not always in a way that is beneficial to you.

There are a few things you can do to help alleviate this common office warrior issue:

• Stand up at least once per hour and stretch for 2-3 minutes. One of the best stretches you can do in the office is the following:
• Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, toes pointed straight ahead, left foot about 18 inches in front of you.
• Reach up as high as you can with your right arm
• Bend as far as you can to the left with your arm still extended
• Slightly twist back to your left and hold for 20-30 seconds
• Repeat for the other side, do this 2 times on each side
• Try to strengthen the opposing muscles in your back: the erector spinae. You can do this by doing back extensions on a Swiss ball or a prone cobra core exercise
• Think about working part of the day from a stand-up desk or worktable
• Make sure when you workout that you are not making the problem worse by always doing seated exercises (stationary bike, any seated resistance machine, etc.)

Take care of your posture. Make Mom proud.