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If you’re someone who sits for the majority of the day, whether it be sitting at home at the office driving or just general inactivity, then odds, are your body has over time adapted to become a very efficient sitter? Yes, your body over time actually gets really good at sitting by turning off certain muscles and over activating other muscles. And when you then combine this with the fact that most people don’t just sit and instead slouch forward and lean sideways and do all kinds of things to make themselves more comfortable, it leads to a host of problems and imbalances that arise when you’re not sitting and Typically, what this will lead to is more or less the development of the following posture, where the head protrudes forward the mid back and shoulders round forward and the lower back arches excessively, with an anterior tilt to the pelvis and to make matters worse. This posture is often accompanied with a host of asymmetries created by various sitting habits, which can lead to one side of the body being tighter than the other and, as a result, create a slight drooping on that one side, for example, which all in all can lead To tightness and aches and pains in the neck, the shoulders, the lower back and various other areas, while making it difficult to properly execute various exercises in the gym, let alone comfortably stand and move throughout the day. But luckily there are easy ways to reverse this and prevent it from worsening.
If you spend the majority of the day sitting because, based on the analysis of multiple papers, we know that these various postural patterns created by sitting, are simply a result of various muscles that become underactive and weak over time and other muscles that have become overactive and Shortened over time, which, in effect, pull your body into this new posture, therefore, to reverse this i’ll, be showing you two quick and easy five-minute corrective routines that you can do virtually anywhere and are designed to mobilize these tightened areas, strengthen the weakened areas and work on Correcting any asymmetries you may have as well, the first routine will focus primarily on the upper body, and the second routine will focus primarily on the lower body, each consisting of four exercises and then towards the end of the video i’ll. Show you how to then go about implementing them into your day, but for now, let’s jump into the first routine. The first exercise we’ll use to mobilize the upper body is over and backs which can be done with either a band or a towel. This exercise is used to open up and stretch the shortened chest and shoulder muscles that are pulling you forward into this hunched posture here, you’ll simply: grip the tower band with a wide overhand grip, pull it apart slightly to create tension and then, without bending your elbows, Raise it over your head and behind your back going only as far as you’re capable of then when it gets behind your back focus on pulling your hands apart start with a wider grip and over time narrow your grip as your mobility improves. Next, we’re going to move on to the cobra pose to now stretch out pretty much all the titan muscles from sitting.
This is arguably one of the single best stretches for sitting, because if you go joint by joint, the entire body is almost completely reversed. In the stretch position when compared to a typical sitting posture to do it properly and without aggravating your back, however, you want to execute the following: lay on your stomach with your feet about hip width apart toes facing down and hands by your sides positioned directly under Your shoulders next contract, your quads, so that your knees are off the ground, bring your shoulder, blades down and back, and then lengthen your spine by thinking about bringing your upper body forward and up by using and engaging your mid and lower back muscles. You should not be muscling your way up by pushing your arms into the ground; they should simply be there for guidance and stability, as you lengthen hold for a few deep breaths at the top position before coming down and repeating for more reps. The next exercise, we’ll use here, will be used to help correct some of the asymmetries developed from slouching one way when sitting this causes your muscles on your side, such as your ql, to tighten up and commonly droop your body. One way, as a result for these we’ll perform a simple standing reach where you hold one hand at your hip and then with your other arm.
You want to extend up and back behind your body at a diagonal think about reaching towards the ceiling and experiment with different angles until you find the angle that best creates a stretch in your side shown here, hold the end position for about five to ten seconds And then repeat for reps, before switching to the other side and you’ll, probably notice that one side is tighter than the other as a result of your slot chain, in which case you’d want to spend a little bit more time and do more reps. On that tighter side, next we’re gon na move on to strengthening some of the weakened upper body muscles more specifically, the weakened, lower traps that contribute to that hunched over posture and the weakened neck flexors that contribute to that forward. Head posture to do so. We’Ll use wall slides with chin knots here simply stand against a wall with, ideally, both your upper back and lower back completely flat against. It then slide your arms up and down against it like.
So then, with the back of your head against the wall simultaneously perform reps of chin knots, where you tuck your chin into your chest by using those deep neck flexors to basically give yourself a double chin. As you raise your arms, you should feel a strong contraction in your mid back and as you perform the chin knots, you should feel the muscles in the front of your neck working. This combination of wall, slides and chin nods is an effective way to correct both that hunch posture and that forward head posture. At the same time, if the ball size is too difficult to start, though, you can perform shoulder w’s like so as an alternative. Next, it’s time to move on to focusing a little bit more on the mid and lower body muscles with the second routine.
To start off, though, we’ll work on thoracic or mid-back mobility that gets stiffened from sitting and not only promotes that hunched over posture, but can also lead to problems and compensations in the lower back and lower body as well. To do so, we use thoracic rotations where you get on all fours sit your hips back towards your heels, place, one hand extended out in front of you and the other held behind your neck like so, then simply bring your elbow down towards the floor and while, Following your elbow with your eyes, rotate your elbow up towards the ceiling as far as you can hold the top position briefly and then come back down for more reps. Before moving to the next side, you should feel a good stretch in your mid-back area, as you do so. Next we’re going to move on to stretching out the hip flexors, which have become tightened over time and are pulling the pelvis into that anterior pelvic tilt. To do so, we use a simple kneeling, hip flexor stretch, but the key to this exercise is effectiveness, which most people overlook is to first posteriorly tilt your pelvis by contracting your glutes and abs.
Then only once you properly set your pelvis gently lean forward until you feel a deep stretch in the front hip of your back leg, hold the end position for 10, deep breaths or so, and then switch the other side. Next, we’re going to move on to a stretch that not only further lengthens the tightened hip flexors, but also helps open up the hips with external rotation and addresses any asymmetries present there to best set us up for success and the strengthening exercise we’re gon na. Do next for these, you can use a couch or any elevated platform and cross your front leg on top of it, and fully extend your back leg to lengthen out your hip flexor, then, with your hands placed on your foot and your knee brace your core and Simply bend at your hips to bring your chest forward until you feel a deep stretch in the side of your front hip, hold it there but feel free to move around at different angles to tweak the stretch a bit. Then you can switch to the other side. You’Ll likely notice that one side is significantly tighter than the other, especially if you tend to cross your legs quite a bit when you’re sitting, if so, spend a little bit more time on the tighter side and if needed, an alternative is to perform this similar stretch.
But seated with your foot rested on your opposite knee and again leaning forward by dropping your chest until you feel a stretch. Lastly, we’re going to move on to glute bridges to help awaken and strengthen the glutes that tend to become inactive and weakened as a result of prolonged sitting and are now contributing to that anterior pelvic tilt, it’s vital that you perform the prior stretches first, however, since Research has shown that those tightened muscles we stretch will actually inhibit your glute activation and make it hard for you to effectively use this exercise so to perform your glute bridges lay on your back with your knees, bent and feet flat on the floor. Then first move into posterior pelvic tilt by contracting your glutes and abs. Once that’s, set use your glutes to thrust your hips into the air, while keeping your back straight rather than arch hold the top position while contracting the glutes before coming down for more reps. Over time you can then progress to single leg, glute bridges as you get stronger, which can help correct any strengthy symmetries you may have in your glutes.
So here are the two routines, all summarized with rep ranges and timing guidance for each of the exercises. As for the best way to implement this, there is some research and office workers indicating that for the highest levels of productivity throughout the day, you should take a short break after every 52 minutes of work. Therefore, a good way to easily incorporate these routines is to alternate between each of them after every hour or so of seated work during the day, regardless, though, i’d suggest aiming to perform both of these routines at the very least once a day, and ideally, each twice A day if you do sit quite a bit as it’s the consistency and the frequency with these routines, that’s key, but keep in mind as well, though guys that sitting is just part of the problem. I mean we see similar postural imbalances in those who stand all day as well. The real problem is not taking regular breaks, not being aware of your posture throughout the day and just not moving enough in general, so focus your efforts on improving those aspects.
While incorporating the routines mentioned in this. Video and you’ll be able to create positive, long-lasting changes and, as a result, look feel and perform that much better and for a step-by-step holistic program. That shows you exactly how to train and eat, to build muscle and lean down without overlooking key muscles, like the one shown in this video and simply head on over to buildwithscience.com, to take the analysis, quiz and discover what science-based program is best for you and where Your body is currently at anyways, that’s it for today guys. I hope you enjoyed this one.
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