Improve Your Work Posture

Good Posture is a Daily Practice.

One of the most common issues I hear about with clients is about their back pain. We address this not only in our workouts, but more importantly with consistent short daily breaks to retrain the muscles. The most important thing you can do is to take frequent (think hourly ) but (:5) breaks each hour to focus on your posture! I harp on this with my young adults and kids just starting out in school and in the work world. Adults who have been Hunching over your laptop, and sitting still for hours leading to rounded shoulders, neck and low back pain also can become pain free IF they are consistent.

With just few minutes of time on the following exercises you can :

• Strengthen your Core

• Optimize your Breathing

• Alleviate Back Pain

• Increase Metabolism

• Lower your Cortisol

• Increase your Testosterone

• Improve. your Mood

  All those hours sitting; at our computers, in meetings, staring at our phones, at meals, and watching TV really add up. So, If we want to live active pain free lives then we owe it to ourselves to take mini-breaks to tune-into our bodies and realign and move our bodies (as they were designed to do). Sitting on our butts with backs against a chair turn them and our inner thighs “off” , hip flexors get tight and shoulders round in and neck cranes forward causing tight trap’s and often neck pain. To start let’s WAKE UP those muscles, engage our rhomboids (muscles between shoulder blades) pulling our shoulders and chin slightly back and neutral (feeling back of the head long form the spine).

Below are a few simple posture exercises you can do right in your office on an hourly basis to counteract the sitting and get the benefits above:

SEATED:

Shoulder Rolls- 10x Forward and Backward

Neck Rolls -4x and Repeat other side

Foot Circles - 5x each direction (clock and counterclock wise) per foot

STANDING:

Chair Squats: 10x Stand from seated position and then almost sit back down before standing again.

Active Military Stand: Use firm feet , quads, glutes, chest high and breath :30 seconds

Standing Arm Circles. Forwards x10. Backwards x10

Walk to the bathroom, then water cooler for another big glass of water

SIT:

Seated HIp Stretch: Cross one ankle over the other knee while seated upright, hold for :20 each and repeat.

More Desk Posture Tips:

Eyes: The Computer Screen should be just below eye level (relaxed eyes) about 24” away from your face.

Arms: Your forearms should comfortably rest on the desktop without you needing to lean forward (no shrugging shoulders or arching of wrists to reach for the keyboard).

Back: Use a lumbar support chair, with a 2degree tilt forward.

Feet: Foot placement about hip width apart and firmly planted on the floor shins perpendicular to the floor, hips slightly tilted forward.

** Part of my Daily Mini-Break Class Series this series can be modified and tailored for anyone to improve their mobility and reduce pain.