Tips on how to improve your sitting posture

07 Sep

Tips on how to improve your sitting posture.

These are all questions I get asked all the time. The vast majority of people I see have low back pain. There are many different reasons or causes of someone’s back pain and most people’s story of how they injured their backs are different. But often there is a common theme. Perhaps they have started a new job which involves more hours and therefore the twice a week gym sessions have been stopped for a few weeks. Or perhaps you injured your back whilst in the gym lifting a heavier than normal weight. Both mechanisms can produce similar symptoms but have different causes.

The initial mechanism really is looking at your ACTIVE VS INACTIVE BALANCE.

What does that mean? Well, your body loves to move and if we move or exercise let’s say we earn points that allow you to spend time being passive (inactive). Now each of us is individual but if we are used to being active every day by walking to work and then we stop and just become more inactive, our backs may complain.

So one of the biggest pieces of advice I give is to get moving more in your day, lunchtime walks or walk to work.

The other common mechanism is doing something that is just too much for your back to cope with, such as lifting a heavyweight or catching a falling cupboard. The pain may appear to be the same as the above and actually what is important is that often if you have injured your self at the gym or outside of work, often you don’t consider then that all the sitting may not be helping it get better. So once again it is important to look at sitting in both these scenarios.

Sitting for shorter periods and making sure you move more is key. Looking at how you sit can also help. Standing desks are becoming more common and I have actually advised people to invest or get their companies to invest and they are becoming more and more popular.

Tips on how to improve your sitting posture