If you're like me then you spend an awful lot of time sitting... behind the computer (for work), on the couch in front of the television, eating at a table, etc.
If you're like me then your also spend a lot of time looking down at your mobile phone.
So I guess you're like me! Great! We've got something in common
Or.... not so great, because this causes:
Upper and lower crossed syndrome
Actually almost everyone who has a desk job has these syndromes and needs to fix it and if you don't have it, you need to prevent it.
I'm not gonna explain thoroughly what upper and lower crossed syndrome is cos i know you guys know how to use google, but I will provide a short description so that you know what we/I are/am talking about.
The human body is made to move. It's made to hunt, gather, stand, walk, propagate aka MOVE
It's not made to sit all day in a chair, but that's what we do nonetheless.
So what happens when we sit all day?
Certain muscles get shorter and tight, cos they have a flexed position for most of the day.
Other muscles get stretched all day and become weak.
In the lower body it's the hamstrings and psoas that get shortened and tight and it's the glutes (ass) and lower abdominals that become weak.
This causes the hips to rotate forward while standing and walking.
The anterior pelvic tilt causes the natural S-shape of the spine to increase.
Which in turn can cause lower back pain and forward head posture (instead of straight-ish neck).
This is called lower crossed syndrome.
In the upper body it's the chest muscles (pectorals) and the upper neck (top part of the trapezius) that get shortened and tight and it's the lower part of the trapezius together with rhomboids and the cervical flexors (front of the neck) that get constantly stretched and become weak.
This causes rounded shoulders (forward shoulders), forward head posture and possible abducting and winging or the scapulae.
This often causes myofascial trigger points (also called muscle knots) in the trapezius, which in turn can cause headaches (especially when combined with stress).
This is called upper crossed syndrome.
Usually it's not one or the other, but people have (a degree of) both, which makes it even worse.
Do you have either of these?
I'm guessing most of us in the steemit community has unfortunately :s
So how do we fix?
The most often advise that's given is to stretch the shortened, tight muscles.
That works and fixes most of the issues.
Commonly used stretches that I've used and approved:
Upper trapezius stretch:
Pectoral stretch:
and rotate the body outward to feel the stretch in the pec's.
Hamstring stretch:
Stand and try to touch your toes.
Now try with bend legs and keep your lower back hollow while reaching forward to emphasize the hammies without stretching the lower back.
try like this:
Psoas stretch:
Now this all works fine. It worked for me, it improved my posture tremendously and removed lower trapezius and lowerback problems I had (it was often tight and uncomfortable, sometimes even painful (like when suddenly walking for a few hours)).
Now besides the stretches one could also strengthen the weak muscles (glute bridges, any rowing movement, some towel exercise for the neck that I've never done) to speed up the process. I also stopped doing bench presses as I didn't need my pec's to get more strength until my trapezius and rhomboids had caught up in strength, as that would cause slower progression in fixing upper crossed syndrome.
Another thing that speed up the process is myofascial release (like a massage) to the trigger points (mostly the trapezius).
So all was well.
Except... when you go traveling for 8 months and you often work next to the pool on non-ergonomic chairs or with a laptop on bed and you stop going to the gym 2/3 times a week the situation takes a turn again.
Also sleeping in different beds every week doesn't help much.
Thus I needed to find a more effective approach. I found out (by reading online, not by trying a gazillion different things... I'm not trying to sell something here... lol ) that the muscles that become tight have to get strength training in the lengthened position. So that the brain will learn to relax the muscle as it knows it's not near the limit of a muscle tear.
As for me it's mostly my psoas and hamstrings that are still tight and not so much my pec's I´m only doing these loaded stretches for my legs and simply doing the above trap and pec stretches for the upper body.
I guess you could use these right away instead of the above stretches for faster results.
Loaded hamstrings stretching:
When in the gym: go to the deadlift platform, put some plates in front of you, stand with your toes on these plates and do wide-grip (snatch) stiff-legged/romanian deadlifts.
If you've never done (romanian) deadlifts, ask for someone knowledgable in the gym to help you and correct your stance as you don't want to make matters worse which can happen if you deadlift with wrong posture!
The toes up portion causes a stretch in the calves which causes extra stretch in the hamstrings. And the stiff-legged/romanian deadlift causes you to strengthen the lengthened position of the hamstrings (let the weight go low to feel the stretch).
The reason to use a wide/snatch-grip is twofold:
- it creates more room to lower the weight (not important for most people except short people)
- it places more tension in the traps and rhomboids, thus helping for the upper crossed syndrome as well (if posture is proper! else it will make matters worse)
Loaded psoas stretch:
This one is easier and can also more easily be done at home. It's simply a "Bulgarian rear foot elevated goblet split squat" ;)
This exercise will cause the psoas to stretch while loaded.
The goblet part tells you how to hold the weight (if using extra weight over your bodyweight), it forces you to keep a straight lower back and thus causes a deeper stretch then if you would simply hold two dumbbells to the side.
You can simply do this exercise at home, simply use a bed, chair or couch to put your rear foot on and do the exercise using your bodyweight. You can also hold the bottom position for a period of time to really get that stretch going.
Do these stretches daily and if your going to the gym put some extra focus on the glutes (barbell hip thrusts) and lower trap (trap 3 raise, also throw in some face pulls) and you'll be happy you listened to me a few weeks later ;)
barbell hip thrusts look funny ;-)
Oh and it's proven that a person that moves more has better brains and thus can work smarter.