Most of Us Sit on Our Butt Too Long

Posted on 05/30/2019 by Pisaries Creator

I’ll be the first one to admit, I sit on my butt way too long during the day because my job requires it. I use this fact to push myself when I exercise because my thinking is I’m not doing much of anything during the day even though I am (mentally). I had a massage yesterday, which was beyond necessary because like most people I carry personal stress in my neck/shoulders and work stress too. This made me realize I need to do more getting out of my chair during my work day to break things up. We all know the bad effects of sitting too long in a chair let alone typing at a computer. It makes it all the worse when you sit down at your desk to write or blog or surf the internet after you’re done working.

My current massage therapist said a month ago to do wall angels (he used a different term I don’t remember) and wanted me to touch my hands together at the top while keeping my arms, back, and head glued to the wall. It’s much harder than you think and when he recommended I do them three to four times a day while working I was thinking “yeah, right.” I’ll be lucky if I do them once a day after work, but now I realize doing them during my work day serves me better. I’m trying to do them as often as I can. It’s hard. I’m hoping over time it gets easier, and I get more flexibility through consistency by doing this as well as yoga and other stretching exercises.

Wall Angel

The second thing I’m suggesting, which I did a long time ago and getting back to incorporating it into my weekly routine are exercises to strengthen my upper back muscles, but more helps reverse the long periods of sitting in a chair. As you see below, you can do rows with any kind of resistance band or weight. One version of this I also learned when I went to another massage person a while back was using a light rope resistance band. He basically said pretend I’m holding a quarter in between my shoulder blades each time I bring the band back. I kept my arms straight with a little bit of a bend as not to overextend when I pulled the band back. If I got stronger, I could decrease the width in between my hands but never got to that point. I incorporated some videos below of different back rows.

Standing Back Row with Resistance Band

Seated Row with Light Resistance Band

Standing Row with Light Weights

I like reverse flies too as they strengthen your upper back, and as I said above yoga and stretching is good too. The latter two help with body realignment especially the spine and hips. I’m not a posture guru by any means, but I do know the older I’ve gotten it’s become more important. The lower back is a whole other issue, but again there are many exercises to help you strengthen this too. As I’ve heard and read many times, a weak core means a weak back. There’s nothing but truth to this.

Standing Reverse Fly

I’ll close this with we all know slouching is not good for your body. You will feel the effects of it over time. You ever wonder why the vacuuming hurts your back after a while. Because you’re putting more stress on your spine than need be and not using the proper stance of putting weight on one foot while stepping with the other. Lift with your legs and not your back. Bend at the hips and don’t contort your body like twisting when you don’t need to. We all know this, but do we actually do it? I included a picture below of the correct posture you should have when writing or sitting at a desk. They say reclining back is okay too, but sticking your head out like a turtle is a bad thing. If this has helped you in any way, good. If not, oh well. You either have great posture or you don’t really care. Either way, I hope everyone is doing well.