Sitting Long Hours? Good Bye Body Then!

Nowadays, sitting AND working on a computer is becoming the "normal" posture: hips closed, thighs tight, spine flexed, and what about your lovely shoulders rounded forwards? Or your fingers spread like spider legs on the keyboard.

Well this posture is kind of killing you... literally. It’s not great, is it?

If you think i am joking, unfortunately I am not.

By keeping this kind of posture a long time and repeatedly, your body loses the "fight" against gravity. That means no strength, so how would your body be able to preserve your organs, and all the wonderful systems AKA blood circulation keeping you alive?

But there are ways that can help you to preserve your body, and get more energy from it.

First Things First:

1. Notice how much time you are sitting a day.

Before changing anything, you need to know how the reality is. Do you stand in the tube? How long do you stay at your desk? Is sitting on your couch the first thing you do on coming home?

2. Notice HOW you sit on a chair, sofa, table...

Maybe you sit nicely with both feet on the ground, spine straight, and all relaxed at the same time (well let’s dream a bit).

Maybe (and more commonly) you cross your legs (or ankles), diving with your chin to the screen/lunch, your back hunched over your work, or relaxed into the sofa. Do you recognise yourself in this description? Or are you sitting up straight right now?

Now we can talk about how to make changes..

6 Top Tips:

BREATHE

I noticed that this is the first thing that people forget or neglect: breathing. Especially when you are focused on something and sitting, you are letting gravity press you down, and by doing so, reducing the space for your rib cage to open. The inhalation stays at the top in the first few ribs doing the breath from the shoulders, which is more work for them (also not good) and they have less capacity to relax (or to bring more oxygen) for you. Have you ever noticed that?

So to give you energy, the first step is to focus on your breathing:

• Sitting or standing, straighten your spine up.
• Inhale deeply, slowly through the nose, opening the rib cage to the sides.
• Exhale slowly through the mouth.

Do it eight to ten times several times a day (aim for 5x).

How do you feel? A bit dizzy? Good, you are feeling what you are actually missing: oxygen.

Now let’s use this oxygen.

STAND UP

So you have been sitting for a while now. How do you feel in your lower back? Your shoulders? Up to your ears? well, STAND UP. Push gravity up... literally! Easiest you to make you stronger.

WALK

Are you still standing up? So let’s walk a bit, but enough to bring movement to your body and blood to your brain. Yeah!

STRETCH

Another way to gently reactivate your body is to stretch regularly. If you haven’t any pain, you can just keep them in the morning. IF you have chronic pain, well try to practise stretching during the day. Especially when you don’t use the muscles they tend to follow your natural posture. So if you have your shoulders forwards, rounded back, no waist, you will need to stretch the sides, legs, bum, and the whole back of your body. It doesn’t need to be long, especially at the beginning, but do them regularly and you will find your joints free again. Start with 20-30 seconds/muscle every time you have a break during the day (or create the break). Or, aim for three times a day: before going to work, lunch, before going to bed or coming back home.

BE MINDFUL

Imagine you are waiting for the bus or the tube, maybe thinking of everything you have to do. Well instead of letting your mind go everywhere, bring it back now into your body, waiting and make it focus on doing some up and down movements with your legs:

• Stand, feet together.
• Straighten your spine up, tummy button gently in.
• Relax your shoulders and your arms.
• Inhale, move one foot onto the ball of your foot.
• Exhale, push the heel down, and rock onto the toes of the other foot.

Practise for 10-15 times.

A small movement to bring you back into the present moment.

EXPLORE

I won’t ask you to dance in your work place (or maybe!) but to make your body and brain fully healthy, they need challenges... and complex movement is the key, I mean dancing (not clubbing, real dance), martial arts, movement where at least three joints are involved, and if you add a space dimension like rolling on a flip, you will make your brain really happy.

How does it sound? Doable? Impossible?

I will say also don’t try to implement these six tips all at once. If you want real and durable change in your habits, make sure you practise them one at a time first.

Give yourself two weeks for each to be comfortable with it.

Have a go with them, and tell me how it goes for you.

And if you need any help, feel free to contact me [email protected]