Posturegenics

How to sit without damaging your future.
I used to stand all day long. I’d walk around my Chiropractic clinic for the entire day. I would stand to adjust people. But most of the time, I would stand and walk; demonstrating to people how to stand, how to walk, how to move better. I would explain that pain comes from poor efficiency of sitting, stance and/or movement. This constant unconscious grinding of parts in poor posture was the reason why their knee, hip, ankle, shoulder (plug in the appropriate anatomical part) pain was there, kept coming back or never left. That was great fun and I never tired of the dawning aha’s that people had when they regained conscious control of smooth efficient motion. The side effect of that was always decreased or elimination of pain and the increase of joy, confidence, performance.

Now I’m sitting more; a lot more. Never thought I would. I know how hard sitting is on the human frame. With thirty years of standing and working on people I never had back pain. I knew how to stand, minimize gravitational stress and stay flexible just by using my body correctly. (More on gravity as a honing tool instead of an anvil later.) Unfortunately, there was that little problem of overusing my arms which caused some elbow damage after 30 years of helping people. You know it is what we don’t see that has a way of harming us. The true definition of being ‘blindsided’.

As I work on my web business/presence I find that there is way more sitting than I have done in years and years. Western sitting in chairs is not very good on low backs, shoulders and necks. Typing on the computer is hard on the wrists. It really is about posture as the pattern or arrangement of parts and how we consistently use them or misuse them. I can feel the change of force through my body as I sit more. Low back stiffness, between the shoulders burn, neck discomfort, I can feel my body acting like shrink wrap.

I want to connect with lots of people throughout the computer world but not at the expense of damaging my body. Heck, I’m supposed to be the expert in this stuff, but I can feel it already creeping up on me as I assume the computer posture. The solution? Well, I am not going to stop writing. I have put that passion of mine on the shelf for too long, so I have to find another solution.

What about you? Are you noticing body aches and pains from sitting in front of the computer, assuming the acolyte’s position in front of the altar of the keyboard? But you say, there are contacts and friends and connections and profit waiting out there for me and I want to sit there. Or I have a job (Just Overuse Body)(Just Omit Brain) that forces me to trade me time for money. Hours for dollars. (Joints Over Burdened) I need to sit there.

There are ways to disperse force through the body that minimizes the compression of a few areas. Maximal force on minimal area is what leads to discomfort, pain, inflammation and eventually arthritis and other permanent damage.

Once again the solution is already there waiting for me to look at how the human frame was designed to operate. People who sit get stiff and rigid. The body was designed to move and balance from the middle in all postures, not the feet when stadning or the butt while sitting. When people sit too long they let go of the abdominal muscles and overuse low back and upper shoulder muscles. Check yourself right now I’ll bet dollars to donuts that you are sitting in a ‘C’ shape, folded forward, in slumped posture probably leaning off to the right or left as well. That posture creates forced compression into the big three stress areas, low back, mid back and neck. It also forces the wrists to work at unnatural angles and compromises their joint integrity.

First choice is not a fancy ergonomic chair. Although there are some incredibly elegant adaptations to improper sitting that diffuse stress and strain. So that it is easier to fold up.

I used a standing desk for years, it doesn’t fit into my work area now, but I found it to be a very effective solution to chronic sitting pain. So now you will find me varying my position from standing and thinking (I still think better on my feet), to ball sitting, to normal western sitting to reclining sitting (wireless keyboard in my lap) to squatting. Yes, squatting. Do you know that half the world’s population doesn’t use chairs? They hunker down in a squatting posture and they stay flexible long into their later years. It is surprisingly comfortable, though for people who have lost significant flexibility it will take time to return to that natural way of ‘sitting’. It is very health promoting if you can do it. If you can hunker, it is a wonderful way to stretch the low back, but your knees have to be healthy to attempt it.

Now that you’ve finished reading this post, sit up on your sit bones. Find your belly muscles. Pretend you are riding a horse, or get out that therapy ball you have but don’t use. Sitting on an unstable surface will force you to find your core muscles. Stand up against a wall (It is a vertical template) your tailbone, midback and head should touch gently and comfortably against the wall. If it feels like you are leaning backward you are already falling into your grandparents posture. Get away from the computer and stretch. Better yet walk away from the computer and take a walk. Good luck. See you around the computer campus - I’ll be the one with good posture.