Ergonomic & Posture
As the technology in our lives continues to advance, most of us find ourselves spending more and more time sitting and for longer periods. Our desk jobs, study and even our increasing amounts of time on screens (phones, tablets and TV) over the past 10-20 years are now having a significant effect on our overall health and wellbeing because we are becoming more sedentary and not moving our bodies enough on a daily basis. This increase in sitting and lack of movement has also increased the number of people with poor posture, especially in our children and teenagers. This has led many health experts to say that the effects of sitting on our health has become a bigger concern than smoking in the developed world.
We may know that sitting is not good for us, but for many of us, it is unavoidable because of our work or study. While we may not be able to change the number of hours we sit for, we do have control over how we sit and our posture.
When our head drops forward over our shoulders, it increases tension in the muscles along the back of our neck, across the shoulders and into the upper back area. This rounding forward also affects our breathing pattern by decreasing our lung capacity, restricting our diaphragm movement and encouraging mouth breathing which can increase your stress response by stimulating your sympathetic nervous system.
As Chiropractors, our greatest concern regarding posture and sitting is our children and especially teenagers as they grow and develop. With the increase in screen time, we have seen a shift to being less active and more sitting, which has created an obvious decline in posture.
We have seen this even more so over the past few years during and since the lockdown of 2020-21, where we now see kids sitting on devices to be social rather than getting out and playing with friends. The concern for the children is that as they grow and develop, we often see small postural issues become more obvious and maybe become permanent changes to their spine as they grow into adulthood. This is one of the reasons we are passionate about checking children as they grow and develop, because it is much easier to correct small issues before they become more obvious, requiring more attentive work to correct.
Whether you have good or bad posture, your posture is a habit. If you want to improve your posture, the first step is to become more aware of how you are currently sitting. The more often you are aware of how you are sitting or standing the more you can correct your own posture throughout the day and start to change your posture habits.
Dr Troy’s top tips for sitting and good posture
Move more - the biggest issue with sitting is the lack of movement - set a timer for regular breaks throughout the day. Ideally we should get up and move every 45-60 mins with a maximum time of 90 mins if we need to (on long car trips etc.)
Become more aware - set a timer for every 10-15 mins to remind yourself to check how you are sitting and correct your posture
Good desk setup - this is really important for people who work from home and for our teenagers studying. Having a proper desk and chair that is set up properly for us is vital.
Sitting on 2 sit bones - when we sit, we should have an even amount of weight over both our sitting bones. As the pelvis is the foundation of the spine, sitting evenly allows our spine to remain balanced whilst sitting.
Do you work on a laptop a lot? It's impossible to have good posture on a laptop, so invest in a larger monitor and maybe a bluetooth mouse and keyboard.
Standing desks - A great alternative to sitting all day is a standing desk. While standing too long can create other issues (increased arch in lower back and circulation issues in feet), alternating between sitting and standing throughout a work day is a great way to decrease the effects of sitting all day.