Working through Stagnant Sitting & Excessive Bending
We live in an ever changing world that occupies our senses and impacts physical state of being. Whether you take to the field every weekend for sports related activities, sit a desk all day or spend your free time planting tulips in the garden, the body takes on some form of repeated stress.
Think of a shirt or pair of shoes you wear often. Over time, the fibers on the shoe deteriorate, the sole gets worn out or the colors change. Wear and tear not only affects to household items, but our bodies as well, but there is plenty we can do to keep ourselves in good shape.
In Western society, one of our biggest hurdles, is that of hip mobility which gets tight from playing sports and sitting at the desk, and can be limited in those who practice gardening with poor body mechanics. To see if you are bending correctly, try a simple experiment.
Stand up and put your hands on your waist
Now imagine a feather dropped at your feet and you were asked to pick it up.
Usually everybody immediately moves their heads and looks down which bends the spine and causes the stomach to crunch. If this is you, you have already started to bend incorrectly. Proper bending happens through the hips rather than the waist. During bending here in the West, our backs curve into the letter “C”, but in many parts of the world, people don't look like cashews when they bend over but have straight backs as they bend at the hips.
Persons who spend hours working at a desk can suffer from some serious setbacks in their personal care journey — Life! because of being in a single position for hours on end, there’s low energy expenditure which can lead to issues with metabolism, obesity, risk for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Often, prolonged sitting causes the pelvis to shift, putting excess pressure on the lumbar discs. Putting a rolled towel, horizontally on the low back when sitting or driving can help prevent the shifting of the pelvis to an uncomfortable position. With the constant rise of digital technology, many people keep on sitting which is the common posture at the workplace. Most of the desk workers on average spend around 10 hours of time sitting in front of the computer, where there is no chance of any physical activity all day. And unfortunately sitting for a long time is actually very dangerous to your health.
A person can achieve a proper sitting position and can improve posture by:
Keeping feet flat by resting them on the floor or on a footrest.
Avoiding crossing of knees or ankles.
Maintaining the small gap between the chair and the back of the knee.
Positioning the knees at the same height or little lower than the hips.
Placing the ankles in front of knees.
Relaxing the shoulders, letting the shoulder blades drop down the back.
Keeping the knees and forearms parallel to the floor when possible.
Holding the elbows at sides, creating the L-shape in arms.
Sitting straight and looking forward without putting strain on the neck.
Keep the back against the chair, use some cushion or backrest at some places where the back does not comfortably meet the chair, especially in the lower back part.
Avoid sitting for a long period of time; take a break for at least 10 minutes for per hour of sitting.
Gardening and sports depend on good hip range of motion and mechanics to prevent injuries or acute/chronic pain development. As mentioned earlier, the hip hinge is the proper way to bend over. To hip hinge:
1. Place your feet about 12 inches apart.
2. Keep your back straight.
3. As you bend your knees, allow your pubic bone to move backward.
4. Fold over by allowing your pubic bone to slide through your legs, down and back.
Daily activities, in general, wear the body down and worse if the body is sedentary! In order to bring balance to your body in this busy world, add a form of high intensity training 3-5 days like HIIT or weightlifting to strengthen muscles and tendons and improve bone density, and a form recovery such as weekly massage or yoga to balance the bodies energy. Take care to bend with a hip hinge as often as possible, using the hamstrings and glute muscles to support the bodyweight instead of the smaller muscles in the back low back. The hamstrings should lengthen when bending over, so if you feel tightness or pain in the legs when bending over, it’s time to get busy with the self care - stretching and foam rolling when on the go and a relaxing full body massage when you have off time. Massage has many other added benefits that are too numerous to mention here. From reduction in blood pressure in improvement in blood flow, massage makes the body feel that much better.
