The Bristol City Sit Down: Undoing Desk Damage
The Problem
Sitting down is really quite nice! It’s comfortable to a point where we can sit like that for hours and there’s more and more advancements going into office chairs and the like to allow you to sit with “perfect posture” for extended amount of time. However, this is the exact problem. Back at Uni while doing my BSc, one of my lecturers who’s also a working physiotherapist said something that’ll stick with me forever. He said something along the lines of “It’s easy to see that the spine is designed to move and remain mobile, so there’s no such thing as perfect posture and actually, you should change your seating position regularly and allow your spine to move.” With that, let’s jump into the scientific literature!
The Science
There are many reasons why sitting at a desk all day can wreck havoc on your spine and muscles. It’s a common issue I see a lot of and strengthening certain muscles while loosening others is a key component to relieving pain for clients. In fact, Akkarakittichoke et al. (2022) states that amongst office workers who sit down for extended periods of time, neck and lower back pain are significant reported health problems.
Looking at the top, your neck can often tilt forward as you look at a screen and fatigue slowly builds throughout the day leading to tightness down the cervical spine. As you begin to slump, your shoulders start rotating inwards and forwards causing your chest muscles to be in a shortened state while lengthening your rear shoulder muscles such as your supraspinatus, infraspinatus, and teres minor, leading to weakness.
Now from the bottom, your knees and hips are constantly at 90° degrees, causing your hamstrings (rear upper leg muscles) and hip flexors to be in a shortened state. This nasty combo puts a lot of pressure on your lower back and can be a reason for lower back pain.
The combination of certain muscles lengthening while others remain shortened can lead to a semi-permanent change in posture of spinal position. However, with proper stretches and strengthening of the affected muscles, such pain and changes in posture can be alleviated and fixed completely which leads on to the next segment.
The Solution
As previously mentioned, the negative effects of sitting at a desk or in a chair for too long every day can be reversed but it takes time and a consistent work. The reality is that if your job requires you to spend five days a week sitting down, some of your daily free time MUST be dedicated to mobility and strengthening exercises to offset the negative effects. This may sound like a lot of work but all the stretches I’ll be mentioning can be done while you watch TV or chill out. While some of the exercises can also be done with no equipment, others will require some simple stuff. For each section below, we’re going to be focusing on one agonist and one antagonist muscle to start to your rehab or prehab.
Fixing The Hip
The hip flexors and abdominals are the two muscles in question here. As stated above, tight hip flexors can hyperextend the lumbar spine. To counteract this, you want to stretch the hip flexors while strengthening the abdominals.
Upright lunge stretch
Preparation
Stand upright with legs approximately hip width apart with arms to the side. Take one step forward.
Execution
Flex the knees and hips until the back knee almost touches the floor. Hold the stretch to a point of moderate intensity and return to the original upright position.
Bodyweight bent knee leg raises
Preparation
Lie down on your back, hands beneath your hips with your legs raised slightly.
Execution
Pull your knees towards your body, pulling with your abdominal muscles.
Return to starting position and repeat.
Fixing The Shoulders
Standing/sitting frontal shoulder stretch
Preparation
Stand upright or seating down on the floor. Interlace your fingers behind your back and place hands on lumbar spine just above the hip with palms facing outwards.
Execution
Retract your shoulder blades and bring the elbows backwards towards each other. Hold the stretch for roughly 20-30s.
Banded/dumbbell seated rear fly
Preparation
Sit on a chair bending the spine to get the torso as parallel to the floor as possible. Have the feet flat on the floor but greater than 90°. Arms should hang down on the outside of the legs.
Execution
Keeping the elbows straight and palms facing behind you, bring the dumbbell or band upwards until hands are in-line with the shoulder. return to starting position and repeat.
Fixing The Neck
Standing trapezius stretch
Preparation
Place forearm of one arm across lower back and grab wrist behind with other hand and pull to lower the shoulder.
Execution
Tilt head sideways towards opposite shoulder until stretch is felt. Hold for between 20-30s and repeat on the other side.
Rear neck isometric push
Preparation
Sit in a chair with a head-rest or stand against a wall with a small cushion.
Execution
Keeping the head neutral, push the head into the head-rest/wall And hold for 30s. Relax and repeat.
I hope you found this little blog post interesting and if you have any questions, feel free to pop them below!
If you want help building better habits, hitting PBs, and changing your life then work with me, the only fitness and performance specialist around, in Clifton, Bristol.
I hope you all have a great rest of your day and stay strong and healthy!
Esse Fortis Et Sanus
Citations
Akkarakittichoke, N., Jensen, M. P., Newman, A. K., Waongenngarm, P., & Janwantanakul, P. (2022). Characteristics of office workers who benefit most from interventions for preventing neck and low back pain: A moderation analysis. PAIN Reports, 7(3). https://doi.org/10.1097/pr9.0000000000001014