The disease of sittiing too much
Throughout my years of teaching yoga and body movement to different people from different backgrounds who have very different lifestyles, one of the most common issue’s I see as a cause of pain in people’s bodies is sitting too much for long periods of time.
In modern day western living it is very common for people to sit for many hours of the day without moving very much and often this will be sat in a modern style chair.
Sitting poorly starts esrly from our school dsys
We want to keep the natural curve in our back when we sit
In my opinion the modern western style of chair and sitting that we have as common place in our lives is terrible for your back and posture. It exagerates the thing we want to avoid the most:
Rounding of the lumbar region
Shortening of the hip flexors
Head weighted forward and down
Compresson of the low back / sacrum
General lack of movement but especially in the shoulders
When these stationary patterns continue for long periods of time ( potentialy many years ) we start to see issue’s and imbalances that start to effect our daily lives, such as lower back pain and chronic pain that stops us doing the things we love.
My own background as an engineer for many years highlighted this to me as I aged these imbalances started to become stronger and I began to develop chronic back pain, tight hips and shoulders etc.
Something had to change
A consistent structured yoga practiced is what fixed my body that was focused on addressing these imbalances.
In reality we actually don’t need to do so much yoga for these imbalances to change, but what we do need is consistency.
For many of us our job entails that we need to sit infront of a device for some hours in the day, but when our core becomes strong ( the deep spinal muscles ) and our hips and back are open, it is much easier to sit with good posture without going backwards with the progress we make in our yoga practices.
Also as we start to become more mobile and enjoy the feeling of having a stronger more supple body we natually start to make better choices in our lifestyles such as the types of chairs we sit in and the way we move every day. We start to enjoy the benefits of these changes and adapt our homes / work places to feel better.
Ergonomic chairs are becoming normal now in office life
For example, a colleague of mine was a trader in finance and spoke to me about how pretty much all of his back pain disappeared after he changed jobs and had a more active / movement based lifestyle.
It doesn’t mean we need to chnge our jobs but with a consistent yoga practice and adaptations to our lifestyles we can enjoy a more free and open body with less pain.
As I stated previosuly about modern western chairs. On a personal note I rarely sit in these types of chairs anymore. My ‘go to’ work / resting position is to sit cross legged to create the right shape in my body or actully in some kind of supine position so my back ins’t compressed.
Sitting cross legged keeps the hips open
When our at Restaurants or friends homes for dinner etc in typical modern chairs is a small part of my general movement patterns for the week, and this shows in how I feel in my body.
Office culture and chair design has come a long way in the last 20 years and there is a variety of alternatives now where companies are seeing the benefits of thier staff feeling better for moving more and sitting differently.
Varying your seating position maintains better mobility
When your have beter mobility in your body, and you can move your hips witht more ease, it is much easier to sit in alternative ways throught the day so you don’t compress your low back and sacrum.
Your Best move is your next move
Yoga Works
Squat variations are excellent to maintain good hip mobility
Advanced asana such as deep backbends and handstands aren’t necessary to maintain good bodily health and moblity but we need to do some.
Your body likes to move and it is designed to do so.
If you can incorporate an hour or two of consistent, intelligent yoga practice into your lifestyle it will do wonders for your health and long term mobility.
My Supine Sequence restorative yoga sequence and The Element Series as part of The Asana Guide were specifically designed to do this. Start now, start today and start feeling better in your body so you can spend more time doing the things you love with less pain.
