Sit Tall

Does your neck or back hurt? What about your shoulders or your hips? Try being more consistent about minding your posture and see what happens!

Its hard to imagine it being so simple when your pain can seem so complex and temperamental. One of the most common issues flagged in my patients’ movement exams is just plain old bad posture.

The human body was not designed to be still in one position, especially at a computer screen or looking down at a phone, for hours at a time.

Try alternating sitting and standing in 30 minute cycles. There are great options for adapting any desk into a sit/stand desk or stands for your phones/tablets to help if you have to be glued to a screen for hours at a time.

Take a look at your work station or your favorite sitting spot and see if it meets the 90 degree rule. If you have to use two screens for work try to play with the positioning or use the 30 minute position change rule so that you don’t have to be looking in one direction for hours at a time.

<Image from HEP2go.com>

How to find neutral posture:

• Be even between both sit bones

• Be sure that you are sitting on top of your sit bones, not tilted forward or backward.

• Stack your low back on top of your tailbone and hips,

• Stack your lower ribs over the crease of your hips.

• Lightly lift your chest

• Draw your shoulder blades down and back.

• Gently tuck your chin and draw your neck back over your torso

• Don’t forget to breathe :)