Dad Was Right All Along

Due to a full-time job or academic commitment, physical activity becomes less of a priority into our hectic schedules. Spending more time in front of a computer, laptop, doing paperwork, reading or anything you do at your desk or chair all contribute to muscular imbalances and bad postures that develop over time.

Hip flexors become tight from prolonged sitting. Glutes weaken. You rest your elbows on the desk and your abdominals bulge out. Shoulders roll inward towards your chest. You log into Facebook and come across a friend's uploaded photo album and lean your head forward into a "chin jut" to get yourself closer to the screen. After a while in that position, you start to feel tension in your neck and shoulders and a headache coming up.

Relying on your neck and shoulders muscles to support all your forward head weight takes a toll on the spine. (In this case, your core and back muscles should be activated to keep yourself upright.) You feel a growing pain in your lower back because the poor thing's also hanging on to your head like a fat fish on a fishing rod. A chin jut turns into an upper back slouch leaving your lower back to do all the dirty work in combating your bad posture. I bet when you started reading this, you've quickly corrected your posture by sitting up straight with shoulders back!

When I was younger, my dad would poke me below my ribcage in order to get me to sit or stand up straight whenever I slouch.

"Up!" he would say with a finger pointing in an upward direction, his shoulders rolled back and chest pressed outward to provide an exaggerated demonstration how I should walk, stand or sit.

He carries it with such poise a ballerina would. I'd get grouchy, annoyed and tell him to quit it. I was young and stubborn. I didn't see the purpose of "not slouching" and didn't know how bad the habit could cost us in the long run. Being the rebel I am, I would continue to be my great slouching self.

Alas, doing it my way didn't last long enough. He'd become persistent and his pokes would become annoying, consistent and painful, leaving me with no choice but to get myself upright. There was no "his way or the highway." It was "his way or suffer the consequences." The "highway" was only for opportune times when he's not around. As I got older, practicing good posture soon became a habit but sometimes, I still slouch and later on realize I need to get back up! I guess Dad was right all along.

I like spending time on my laptop, especially blogging and Pinterest. Those things are darn addicting. My posture becomes less than ideal when I try to get too comfortable by slowly dropping into a slouch but I still remind myself to sit back up quickly when that happens. It's an on-going cycle of slouching to un-slouching, back and forth.

I try to take breaks from the laptop to walk around, do shoulder circles and stretch my neck. I also do this stretch that helps correct the dreaded "Hunchback." Lie on the floor on your right side with your right arm straight out behind you and perpendicular to your spine. Keep your right shoulder pressed against the floor with your belly off the floor. Spread your legs apart for balance support and bring your left arm straight up towards the ceiling. Work on reaching the left arm as far up as possible and using the muscles in your upper back, push it backwards. You should feel a stretch in your left biceps, front of your right shoulder and chest. Hold for 30 seconds or so and repeat on the left side. It feels amazing!

If you're not flexible enough to bring a straight arm on your lying side behind you, your chest muscles may be too tight so insert the stretch into your daily routine to reverse the common muscle imbalances--tight chests and weak upper back.

Thought I'd throw this out too:

"For every inch of forward head posture, it can increase the weight of the head on the spine by an additional 10 pounds." Kapandji, Physiology of Joints, Vol 3.

"Forward head position may result in the loss of 30% of vital lung capacity." Scary!