How’s your desk fitness? Yes, desk fitness!
Do you have any idea how hard your body has to work to stay upright in a seated position…very!
This isn’t the type of fitness you get by going to the gym, this is postural fitness.
Here’s how you can test your desk fitness. Sit with your feet on the floor pointing directly forward and your spine not resting backwards on the chair at all. Firstly, can you do this without any discomfort in your body and secondly, how long can you do it for without any aches or pains?
If your body has postural strength, length and balance, this shouldn’t present any problems and it will be easy to do for hours at a time. If you cannot do this, then you may struggle to sit at a desk for hours at a time without something in your body protesting.
It could be a stiff lower back, an aching neck and upper back, tight hips and hamstrings…and the list goes on.
Pilates is the only exercise method that corrects posture and develops endurance and fitness in your postural muscles.
Remember that when you’re sitting, there is no movement in the body, so just getting the bigger moving muscles in the body strong, doesn’t address this issue of desk fitness. The only way you do, is by training the deeper postural muscles and this is what pilates does.
Your body is constantly working to keep you upright and without you thinking about it, is always trying to find the most effective and efficient way to align your body.
When you sit, you lose the power of your legs and hips and your body relies on the muscles in the trunk and torso to keep you in alignment and prevent your spine from collapsing.
Unless you are specifically training your postural muscles for endurance, sitting at a desk for hours at a time may be contributing to some common postural issues that could have the potential to cause injuries or issues in the future.
The Hump – Spine is slouched giving you a “hump” in the upper back. Can give you a sore and stiff upper spine at the end of the day, limiting movement and being able to turn your head.
Chooks Neck – An addition to “the hump”. You end up looking intently at the screen putting your head in front of the rest of the body…ouch! That neck gets sore, stiff and maybe you get headaches by the end of the day.
The Slump (very common on the sofa as well) – You end up sitting on your lower back, which puts lots of load on it. You get up and your lower back is stiff and sore, your neck gets sore from looking down at your device.
The Lean Forward – Again, the lower back cops a lot of load and the neck is very compressed. Also, with the lean forward, the front of the hips get a nice compression, leading to extra pulling on the lower back and may cause hip stiffness and pain.
Working on your desk fitness, doesn’t mean that you stop all other types of fitness training. It should be part of your long-term health and well being plan. Postural imbalances are sneaky, they may not cause you any problems for years then all of a sudden, you find yourself on a world of pain, which potentially results on you being unable to sit at a desk!
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