Reversing Desk Posture

by Molly Rausch L1 Personal Trainer and Certified Athletic Trainer

Hello everyone! This week’s “Fitness Tip of the Week” is reversing desk posture. Whether you are sitting at work, listening to a lecture, or traveling, being in the seated position for a majority of your day is hard on your body. Why? Well, there are two main reasons. First, most of us don’t sit up straight while we are sitting. We spend all this time in a position that puts extra stress on our body, which leads to aches, pains, and injuries. The second reason is that our bodies are made to move. Sitting is the hardest position for our back and neck, especially when we aren’t sitting up straight. We sit all day and then try and move at the gym and develop knee, back, or neck pain. We can’t always avoid sitting, but we can help break the pain cycle. How? We need to reset our bodies from a sitting position to standing.

Tips on what to stretch:

When you sit, there are muscles that will be shortened and others that will put on a stretch. In order to reset your body in preparation for a workout, you need to reverse the desk posture by stretching out the muscles that have been shortened all day. Let’s break it down on what gets tight and how to reverse it:

Upper Trap: Neck Stretch	Chest: Doorway Stretch	Low Back: Child’s Pose
Hip Flexors: Couch Stretch	Quads: Standing Quad Stretch	Calf: Slant Board Stretch

Tips on what to strengthen:

Muscles that have been put on a stretch all day become weak. Think of it as a hair elastic: when you stretch it out over and over again, it gets stretched out and eventually breaks. Luckily for your body, we can prevent damage with strength training to get those weak muscles active again. 

Core: Core activation, Planks, Side Plank	Rhomboids: Standing Rows	Glutes: Clam Shells
Serratus: Scapular Punches	Lower Trap: Y’s	Neck: Chin Tucks

If you have any questions on this topic, please feel free to contact me at mrausch@healthworksfitness.com