Bulletproof Your Posture
Sitting at an office desk for hours a day is the work reality for many of us. Unfortunately this often leads to some muscles being overused leading to excessive tightness (eg. your SCM at the front of your neck) and other muscles to be underused leading to excessive weakness (butt and hamstrings). These dysfunctions predispose you to re-setting bad posture, with your body gradually becoming stiffer, weaker, and more unstable.
The main problem is that we then carry these movement dysfunctions into the rest of our activities outside work. You’ll probably never get injured sitting at your desk – it’s when you ask your body to perform less familiar or unexpected movements that the dysfunctions you carry start exposing you to a higher risk of injury. Things like bending over to pick up grocery bags, or attempting simple exercises in the gym can become problematic. Even activities as simple as jogging on the treadmill can lead to injury over time when you’re constantly doing it with tight calves, quads and hips.
If we want our body to become more functional in our other activities, the solution is to teach it to support a stable position for longer at work through a focused strength training and maintenance program. Perfect workstation set-up is critical (talk to your chiropractor) but life isn’t perfect and we need some muscular support.
Coming in to see Ben, Richard or Sam for our adjustment is a significant step towards creating stable body structure. Proper alignment of our bony structure sets the foundation of safety and stability in just about every physical activity we undertake. Muscular mobility and strength is the other necessary piece of the puzzle. The major benefit of a balanced and strong musculature is that it allows you to support and maintain the stability gained from your adjustments for longer. As we gradually achieve better structure through the unwinding process in the adjustments, stronger and more functional muscles are also better able to hold this new healthy structure together each day. A good indicator that this is happening is when you start noticing SMOOTHER unwinds!
If your job is primarily seated at a work desk, a strong functional muscle system literally serves as preventative maintenance for your body. Bony alignment and muscular balance are both necessary for optimal physical function – they can and indeed MUST work together!
I have dealt with so many cases over my years as a PT in which the corporate environment contributes to patterns of muscular weakness and therefore injury proneness. So much so, I decided to create a strength training program geared specifically towards combating the effects of office work. For example, we work on reversing the limitations of a weak posterior chain, restricted thoracic mobility and scapular instability. Doing this typically opens up your range of movement and allow you to safely perform basic strength exercises such as the deadlift, squat and bench press. It’s protection from office work ‘101’ but it also leads to increased body confidence and is often followed by the pursuit of a larger range of fitness activities in a persons life.
If you’d like to know more about how I can help you attain significantly improved muscular stability and strength in 12 weeks or less, you can learn more about me and what I do here:
https://www.athleticedge.com.au
https://www.facebook.com/athleticedgeoz
Simply contact me via email: [email protected] or mobile: 0413 207 204 and I’d be happy to discuss the best options for you.
There is no need to put up with pain any longer
Schedule your first appointment with our expert ABC™ Chiropractors and get back to doing what you love.
Schedule your first appointment with our expert ABC™ Chiropractors and get back to doing what you love