Head Over Heels... Or Hips

Did you know that your head is about as heavy as a bowling ball? And did you know that for every inch forward your head moves away from your body you can add 10 lbs to its weight! If you pretend that your head is a bowling ball and your spine is stick it’s resting on it, can you imagine how exhausting it would be to hold that ball up if it wasn’t balancing right on top of the stick?! No wonder we have so much neck and back pain!
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​Don’t be discouraged; it’s not just you! The temptation to slouch and let the head move forward is natural to ALL people. Our bodies are built in such a way that we do almost everything in front of us. We gravitate (quite literally) to where we are focused. The increasing engagement with technology in our culture makes this problem even more prevalent. More and more jobs are desk jobs. When we’re not on computers we are often on our phones or occasionally even reading books ;)

​Many of you have already realized this problem and try to think about correcting your posture. That is great! I bet you catch yourself slouching again the moment you stop thinking about it though. Active posture correction is HARD WORK! That is why I think it is important to save our postural endurance for when we are active and to let our set-up help us when we are doing sitting activities. Maybe there are a few truly good multitaskers out there, but most of us tend to lose track of our posture as soon as we focus on whatever our eyes and mind are processing. 

​Here are my FAVORITE TIPS to let your set-up take care of your posture while you work:

1. Use the back of your chair: without back support you WILL slouch eventually.
2. Support your arms: use either the arm rests of the chair or get close enough to use the desk/table
3. Adjust the chair so that your hips/knees are at about 90 degrees and your arms can comfortably reach the keyboard. *you may need to add something under your feet if you are on the shorter side
4. Raise your monitor so that you are looking forward and not down to see it. *for tips on my favorite laptop tricks, see my post “Coffee Shop Neck Pain”
5. Add a back support or pillow that is comfortable, gets your head over your hips, and makes it comfortable to use the back of your chair. *you may need to try a few until you find the right one for your chair and back!

          PS: there’s nothing wrong with using rolled up towels if you’re on a budget!
 
For more information on how to build postural endurance when you ARE active, feel free to further explore the information about Schroth Therapy on this site.
 
To learn about maintaining good posture while traveling with a laptop check out “Coffee Shop Neck Pain”.