Chairs are the devil!!!

We have developed our poor postures solely from sitting too much. We’re pretty much doomed from the start – 12 years of most of our lives we go to school and sit in poor ergonomic chairs for 5 hours a day.

Imbalances occur due to one muscle group being too tight and the opposing one too weak.

We therefore develop tight chests, necks, lower back, hip flexors, hamstrings and calves, leaving our glutes, core and mid/upper back WEAK. This leads to a fairly dysfunctional skeleton, hence why a lot of us suffer with aches and pains. Not to mention headaches, shoulder impingement and sciatica.

We can start to improve our postures by trying to restore our imbalances - daily stretching of the tight muscles and strengthening of the weak ones start to un-do the damage we have done. As well as changing our lazy habits - we are all guilty!

Think of how a baby/toddler who has just started walking moves. This is how we should all be moving and the way they sit. They have yet to learn our lazy habits and have the perfect functional skeleton.

This is a stretching routine to do daily to release those tight muscles: Hold each stretch for 20-30secs, only hold till tension you should not feel any pain.

*        Neck stretches to target the upper traps & scalenes – neck in a neutral position to start then look down towards your armpit and then look diagonally up to the opposite side to feel the stretch in the side of your neck (scalenes)

*        Pec stretch – can use a doorway, if a small enough doorway you can do both sides at the same time

*        Quadratus lumborum stretch (lower back) – keep your hips square throughout and if you don’t feel it in your lower back then just lower your hands down slightly until you do. You can use a doorway for this also

*        Thread the needle targets the back of your shoulder and lats as well as promoting thoracic spine mobility

*        Cobra targets your abs, hip flexors, front of neck and opens up your chest

*        Hip flexor lunge – keep your core engaged throughout and try not to slouch into the stretch. You can intensify the stretch by adding the quad stretch as well by bending at the knee

*        Quad stretch in side lying – if you squeeze your glute it will bring in a hip flexor stretch also

*        Hamstring stretch (can use a towel) -  changing the angle of the leg will target the different hamstring muscles for an all over hamstring stretch

*        Glute stretches – if you’re relatively un-flexible you can use the box stretch to start with and then build up to the floor work stretches.

• Buns of STEEL – to get your bums switching on - do each exercise for 30 seconds and repeat the same on the other side. WARNING it will BURN!

• Neck Strengthening – chin retractions (double chin makers) – you can do this seated or standing. Ensure shoulders are relaxed and down, put your tongue to the roof of your mouth and use your fingers on your chin to push backwards as far as it can go, ensuring no tilting of the head up or down, creating a double chin and hold for 10 secs. You will feel the stretch underneath your skull at the back of your neck, whilst strengthening the muscles at the front of your neck. Return to the start position and repeat for 8-10 repetitions. 

I’d recommend doing both of these exercises each morning and night

Just some things to think of to try change our habits:

*        Squat down to pick things up off the floor instead of bending over.

*        Whilst tuning into your favourite TV show, sit on the edge of your sofa during the adverts and concentrate of sitting in a good posture for the duration – engage core, shoulders back and down (not squeezing shoulder blades together), sitting up tall.