Everyday we do repetitive actions that affect our bodies both long term and short term. Think about how often you sit with your protruding forward while typing or reading something on your or driving. Think about how often you are hunched. What about how often you cross your legs underneath your chair and have your knees in your chest as you sit. What do you think all this is doing to your body and how it is going affect your performance and your long term health.
Let us talk about the ideal posture while sitting. First you want to be long as you can be all while stacking your head over the center of your shoulders. Sit with your chest tall, and your shoulders down and back. Tuck your hips as you sit and keep your leg extended and uncrossed as often as possible.
The biggest thing with sitting is that it turns off the stabilizers that we need to perform everyday tasks and especially compound movements in the gym such as deadlifts, squats, and bench press. Sitting also creates stiffness but not in a good way. Sitting makes your hips, hamstrings, back, neck, calves, and chest tight. Sitting will shorten the primary muscles needed to perform your big lifts such squats, bench, deadlift, which increases your risk of back, knee, neck, or shoulder issues.
Posture while standing has just as a profound effect on your performance and health as sitting. Think about how you stand for a moment. Is one hip shifted to the side and back is arched trying to make your butt look bigger? Well if you are doing that you are going to develop lower back and hip problems. Then your big lifts will be limited and you will likely have a smaller butt in the end. Do you tuck your hips underneath you (your typical older male and occasional female), they look like they don’t have a butt. They are less common but that will lead to back issues and hip mobility issues as well. Your squat depth will go to crap if you stand like that. What about the super arched back that makes your butt look like a ski slope as you stand. That will lead to a multitude of issues.
So how do we stand do you ask? Well look at your pants, look in the mirror and see where they sit on your hips. If you stand correctly and your pants are a good fit. Your pants will sit evenly around your body. You have to locate the bony prominences on the back and front of your hips. You either have to tilt your hips forward a little if you have posteriorly tilted (flat butt) hips or tilt them back if you excessively anteriorly tilted hips. In the next my blog I will talk about how we work to correct these issues mobility and stability drills. If you want more information and further assistance with posture go to www.tullockfitness.com.
