If you’re an adult with a job in the Western world and/or a smart phone there is a good chance you have some postural dysfunction and health issues as a result of being hunched over technology for a large part of your day.
Aside from starting to look more like Quasimodo the older you get, it can cause a lot of issues in your day-to-day life and restrict what you’re capable of in the gym because of restriction and eventually injury.
Here are ten things every Desk Jockey should do daily to counteract 8 hours locked in a position your joints and spine don’t like.
Note these are on top of the things every human should such as drinking more water, eating more protein and sleeping more.
INCREASE N.E.A.T
You’re probably lucky if you can manage three hours per week in the gym each week.
Even if you can, the reality is that you simply cannot out-train a calorie rich diet. It’s actually easier to ignite fat loss by increasing you Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis – the amount of calories burned through basic activity. This is why the 10,000 steps movement has gained so much support.
Go for a lunch time walk, schedule an alarm so you work for 25 minutes then walk around for 5 minutes and get yourself. stand-up desk. I don’t recommend standing up all day any more than sitting down all day but a stand-up desk will not only increase calorie burn slightly as you work but is also more likely to encourage you to go for a walk.
Whilst you should also look at calorie intake from food and drink, understand that it will eventually be a dead-end. You can’t keep lowering calories forever whereas within reason, you can keep increasing your output from activity by walking more, being more active, lifting weights, building muscle and so on.
MOVE YOUR THORACIC SPINE
Most desk workers complain of lower back and neck pain.
Part of this is attributable to a loss in movement at your thoracic spine (the upper bit where you find your shoulder blades attached).
The ‘T-Spine’ needs good range of motion in flexion (forwards), extension (backwards) and rotation but this is lost when locked in position over your computer all day and your phone in between.
These two exercises can be done in a few minutes each day and make a huge difference to basic posture, pain and tension and gym performance if you do push ups, shoulder presses and so on.
OPEN YOUR HIPS
Sitting down all day also starts to lock your hips in place, largely due to constant shortening of your psoas muscle (the hip flexor that helps you lift your thigh up).
There are various stretches you can do to counteract this but I like to involve a ‘band distraction’ which increases the stretch and really opens up the front of the hip. You can of course do this without the band if you don’t have one.
HANG MORE
Whilst chillin’ more instead of working all the time is another essential thing for stressed out desk jockeys, I actually mean that you should physically hang more.
Hanging off a pull-up bar or similar recruits gravity to decompress your shoulders and lower back which get compresses from sitting all day with round shoulders. At worst this, can lead to slipped discs and pain from shoulder impingement.
Two minutes of hanging per day will feel awesome!
If you’re not strong enough to free hang then put your feet on something for some support but still let yourself drop down and release.
POSTERIOR CHAIN FOCUS IN THE GYM
Everyone should lift weights 3-4 times per week. Fact.
However, the more you sit down the more you need an ‘imbalanced’ program to correct the imbalances in your posture.
In other words, you need to focus more of your training on the posterior chain muscle than those on the front.
This includes your glutes, lower back and upper back.
For instance if you’re going to do 3 sets of push ups, do 4 sets of seated rows so your back starts to counteract the constant flexion of desk job posture.
Do you squats, but do more deadlifts, kettlebell swings and ‘good mornings’.
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This relates to working the posterior chain more and being more active.
You’ve just spend all day sat down so why would you go to the gym to sit down on machines tapping on your phone between sets?
Other than the rower and the airbike which are great for cardio work in the gym, try to do as much work as you can on your feet.
Learn some yoga flows and animal movements which include lots of rotations, lateral movements and integration of your body as a whole to compliment your weight training. Don’t just move in a straight line when you’re on your feet etither!
PLAN FRESH AIR TIME
Sitting in aircon for 8 hours per day will chip away at the health and efficacy of your immune system.
Nothing is more important to your internal health than clean, fresh oxygen.
Go for a lunch time walk, go for a sea swim if you can and get into nature, preferably around lots of trees as often as you can.
Don’t me a modern day caveman moving from House Cave to Work Cave to Gym Cave!
It’s not just the oxygen that’s important though.
Being in nature enables you to enlivened deadened senses by walking on grass or sand and moving your eyes through a bigger range as you look at things above, around and below you instead of at the 13.5 inch screen you work on. Your eyes and feet are too big sources of stimulation for your nervous system but they get severely restricted by computers and ‘work shoes’.
PREPARE YOUR LUNCH
If you’re in an office and don’t prepare your own lunch, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll end up making great choices about what to eat on a daily basis. You’ll more than likely end up eating high carb, low protein, packaged foods.
Eat breakfast at home if you can and prepare your lunch the night before.
TAKE YOUR EYES THROUGH CIRCLES
As mentioned previously, our eyes deteriorate more quickly if they are asked to work through a small range of motion.
Not only is there a direct effect on the eyes themselves, but your eyes have a huge impact on your posture and movement. Simplifying a complex topic, if eye (and foot) function is affected, there will be consequences further down your chain.
Think of a bit like if you had to drive a car with one of those cones on your neck that they give dogs to stop them scratching! When our vision is obscured, we restrict our speed to stay safe. This is kind of what your brain does with your movement if it vision is impaired, creating restrictions and tension throughout the body.
Every 10-15 minutes, roll your eyes fully around your eye sockets (10 in each direction) then look as far to the left and right as you can without moving your head (10 in each direction).
STOP PRETENDING THERE WILL BE A BETTER TIME
Office jobs are usually driven by increased performance, numbers and shareholder demands.
As such, there is never going to be a time when there are significantly fewer demands on your time and energy and definitely not for very long.
If your job is about the chase now, it always will be.
Instead of putting your health off until all your ducks are in a row, look at how you can get started now even if it isn’t perfect.
Do what you can now, do it consistently then keep looking at how and when you can improve what you’re doing.
That’s the secret!
More on that and how to progress at the right pace in my book The Secrets of Showing Up, available on Amazon.