If you have a desk job or you sit for the majority of the day, you’re most likely focused on the tasks at hand, forgetting about yourself and sitting in a flexed/slumped posture for most of that time. What happens when you sit in this position for a long time? Your muscles and joints will adapt to that position making that the new norm for you. The downside is that the new norm will cause more pain and discomfort later on. Let’s take your upper body for example; your back curves and shoulders roll forwards and your head leans forward causing your Pectoralis and suboccipital (back) neck muscles to become short and tight and your upper back and deep neck flexor (front) muscles to get lengthened and weak. In addition the joints of your neck and upper back/ribs are sitting at the end of their range of motion for a long time and will sometimes get stuck there causing pain and discomfort. For your lower body; your hip flexors (front of hips) and lower back muscles become short and tight, and your real muscles and abdominal muscles become weakened and weak. The term for this is called “Upper cross” & “Lower cross syndrome”.

Imagine a rubber band stretched around a watermelon and left there for a couple days. The next time you take that rubber band off, will it be returned to its normal size? No it will not. It will shrink back to close to its normal size before but the elasticity of the rubber will have changed so it will not return to its original size. This term is called hysteresis, and that is what happens to your muscle and joints when you sit for a long time without letting them return to normal in a short another time.

What to do:

Take a micro-break every 20 to 30 minutes of sitting. That means, take a 2 to 3 minute break and walk around or get a drink of water. Change your seated position, go from sitting to standing, or do a Bruegger’s relief position exercise. If you do not change your position every 20 or 30 minutes hysteresis will kick in and your muscles and joints will start to adapt to the position they want they are in.

Here are some exercises you should be doing to overcome hysteresis, lengthen the tight muscles and strengthen the weak muscles.

Exercises to do to overcome the seated position:

• Hip flexor stretch
• Glute bridge
• Wall shoulder W’s
• Chin tuck/nod
• McKenzie extensions
• Pectoralis stretch
• Bruegger’s relief position