Ditch Your Chair

Ditch Your Chair

We sit while we drive to work.  We sit at our desks.  We sit during three boring meetings.  We sit at our desk or in our car to eat lunch.  We come home and guess what?  We sit some more.

We spent a lot of time sitting, and all of this sitting is taking a toll on our health.  Sitting, while it is relaxing, shortens the hip flexors (those muscles that run along the front of your legs and attach to the spine).  Tight hip flexors inhibit the torso from lifting up and causing us to overarch the lower back.  The result: weak, tight hips and back muscles that cause pain, discomfort, poor posture and other illnesses in the body.

Being in pain adds not only stress to our jobs, but also costs us more moolah.  Back pain costs Americans around $15 billion per year in medical care and disability payments.  Recent studies show that 75% of healthcare spending is for preventable illnesses (keyword PREVENTABLE).  Alarmingly, medical reimbursements for low-back pain in the U.S. alone, is $34 billion annually! (BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, June 2012)

Taking the first step to reclaim your health is hard.  You have to want to do it for you.  It can’t be forced or it will never become part of your daily life.  So, are you with me?  Are you ready to change? 

We begin with getting out of your chair during the day.  Park at the back of the parking lot, ride a bike to work (not the Harley kind) or climb the stairs to a different bathroom.  Walk outside during lunch or when you get home in the evening.  Your new keyword is MOVE.  Do whatever you can to move throughout the day even if that means dancing in your cube.

In addition, yoga can help undo what corporate America has done to our bodies.  Simple stretches like lunges and twists can bring relief to back sufferers.  In fact, just 15 minutes of mindful breathing and stretching has been proven to dramatically reduce both respiratory rate and blood pressure - two more contributors to chronic health. (BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, June 2012)

Here are a few resources I’ve collected to help start you on your new journey.  Download and print any of Limber Llama’s flowing yoga sequences including the “Ditch Your Chair” sequence to keep at your desk.  View videos and read tips from Yoga Journal’s “Office Yoga” workshop or iTunes app Office Yoga.  Awaken body awareness with Yoga International’s article on finding your psoas (a key muscle in opening the hip flexors.)