Picture a long, windowless room. There are rows of seated men and women hunched over their work. They’re tethered to their jobs 10 to 12 hours a day, sometimes six days a week. Production deadlines are critical, involving tasks that require intense focus. If they’re lucky, they get a break to eat midday, but some days that doesn’t happen. When they finally leave for the day, they’re stiff, with shoulders full of tension and backs that ache.
Was your vision something out of a Dickens novel? Did you see a black and white photo of a factory from days gone by? Or did you see a modern office with florescent lights and people bent over computers? Did you see the 21 st century employee who is always working — checking email on the subway and answering text messages at the dinner table?
Desk jobs and our constant use of technology are pulling us forward — but not in a good way. It causes us to assume a forward-head posture and rounded shoulders, or postural kyphosis. In addition to affecting how we look, this can also cause a decreased range of motion in the neck and shoulders, along with numbness and neck pain.
Correcting this problem by training the muscles that support good posture — which include the shoulders and upper back as well as the core and hips — requires a two-pronged approach. First, if you have a sedentary job, try to move as much as possible during the work day. Use these simple strategies to avoid the strain of remaining in the same position:
— Stand up during phone calls.
— When you have a question for a colleague, get up and go to his or her desk instead of calling or emailing.
— Take a walking meeting instead of sitting around the table if the group is small.
— Set a reminder on your phone or calendar to get up at regular intervals during the day.
— Use the printer and restroom farthest from your work area when possible.
If leaving your desk at regular intervals isn’t an option, you can work on range of motion in both the neck and shoulders with a few simple movements. All these can be done while seated — and without making the person in the cubicle next to you wonder what you’re up to:
— Jaw lifts: With eyes facing forward, tilt your head right leading with your jaw. Keep your eyes forward and don’t twist your neck at the same time. Alternate sides, taking care not to force the movement to pain or move too quickly.
— Shoulder rolls: Sit tall in your chair with your feet flat on the floor. Shrug your shoulders and roll them back, feeling your shoulder blades drawn down as you do. You should feel your chest stretch as your shoulders pull back.
— Side reaches: From your seated position, raise your right hand straight in the air. Turn your palm in toward the midline of your body and reach left, over your head. Hold for three to five seconds before returning to the starting position. Repeat with the left hand.
The second effort in the attack on poor posture takes place in the gym. I use three foundational exercises with clients to help open up a tight chest and strengthen the rear shoulders and other muscles that help maintain good posture. These aren’t the only exercise I use, but we often start here:
— Bird dog: Start on your mat in an all-fours position. Alternating sides, extend one arm forward with fingertips reaching for the wall in front of you while the opposite leg extends with the heal reaching for the wall behind you. Keep your head down and think about stretching out your spine as long and as straight as possible.
— Reverse flyes: Start standing with a small dumbbell in each hand. Hinge forward from your hips with a flat back and soft knees. Hold the dumbbells in front of you with palms facing in. Squeeze your shoulder blades to lift your arms out to the sides, even with your shoulders, in a T shape. Lower your back with control, and repeat. Be sure to start with lighter weights and work your way up, which will help prevent straining weaker muscles.
— Stability ball pullovers: Assume a bridge position on a stability ball, with your head and shoulders supported by the ball. Hold a medicine ball or dumbbell directly over your head with straight arms. Lower the weight behind your head, keeping your arms straight through the entire movement. Go as far back as you can without causing pain, then reverse the movement, pushing the ball back to its starting position. Repeat.
Keep in mind that doing too many chest and shoulder exercises can make the rounding of shoulders worse by exacerbating the imbalance between the front and back of the body. My rule of thumb when designing full body workouts is two back body exercises for every one front body exercise. This helps balance out the weakened back body muscles with the dominant front body muscles.
There’s no going back from our current ever-connected state. It took protests and legislation to change sweatshop conditions, but I don’t see an office uprising anytime soon. Unless, of course, everyone decides to stretch at the same time.
More from U.S. News
Exercising After You’ve Gone Under (the Knife, That Is)
8 Ways to Stay Healthy at Work
10 Signs You’re Exercising Too Much
The Sedentary Worker’s Guide to Good Posture originally appeared on usnews.com
