Improve Your Posture-Improve Your Life

CLEAN UP THE WAY YOU WORK!

Every moment needs to be a moment where you think of improving your body, and your brain. You are either making your body and brain worse or better in every moment.

We need to think of ‘aligning’ the body for every day, for 24 hours and not just for a couple of hours when we are going into the gym, moving linearly, and working out.

How Often We Sit:

Think about it, the average person works for about 8 hours per day. That is 1/3 of the day.

The average person may work out about 1 hour per day.

Certainly, I hope that this hypothetical individual we are talking about is practicing good posture and body alignment during their workout.

I assume they spend that hour or so working on whatever their goal may be; whether if it’s for sports performance improvement or weight loss or getting shredded, etc. That is great, and I am sure they are getting after it, and progressing towards their goal.

Though, this same person may be practicing destructive positions the 8 hours of the day that they are sitting.

The Effects of Sitting:

He/she is most likely hunched over his/her desk in a KYPHOTIC position (similar to fetal position); which causes rounded ‘rolled-forward’ shoulders, a forward head posture, tight pecs, anterior pelvic tilt, etc. (where your body is in a position out of its natural alignment). This bad posture is likely the cause of your neck, back, hip, knee, and shoulder pain. This leads to more pain because you are creating dysfunctional and unnatural positions for your body, that it doesn’t want to be in

Our goal should be to get out of this position, and focus on a more positive upright position, where we are in powerful stacked position from head to our hips to our feet. As Aaron Alexander says “imagine you have a 50 pound weight on your head, and you are trying to get long!”

The Effect on Mental Health

Think about a depressed person for a moment..what do you think of?

-A person hunched over with slumped shoulders and a forward “curling up” posture. This innate intelligence is human nature, because the human wants to protect his/herself from any arm, so this posture is one where you are subconsciously protecting your organs.

Now, think of a happy, and positive person, how do they look?

-They are generally standing tall, long, and upright, looking straight ahead with their chest open, shoulders back and arms opened wide.

The way you hold yourself and position (your posture) subconsciously tells your mind how you feel:

-Even if you are not happy, but you hold yourself in a positive, stacked position, and you put a smile on your face, I can guarantee you will instantly feel happier. The simplest way to be happier is to smile more!

The Effect on Efficiency & Work Productivity:

If you have strong, positive, aligned posture, you will be standing with confidence. Therefore, your mind will be sharper, you will instantly feel better, which will help you be more productive and effective throughout your day, not matter what you are doing.

The Effect on Performance:

When you get onto the field or into the gym, and your goal is to improve the way you look, move and feel, you best believe that you need to be practicing GOOD POSITIONS!

If you are not in a good position, you can’t expect to have a lot of power, speed, strength or quickness.

You want to be long, tall, and aligned so you can be quick to react and explosive.

If you have been in a wrong position the whole day, and you show up all “crunched up and short,” you will want to do spend a long time doing correctives, stretches, and a LONG warm up  before you start your session!

If your HEAD is slightly PROTRUDED FORWARD from sitting at a desk all day, or from ‘texting neck,’ that can effect your SPEED, POWER and STRENGTH immensely.
-If your ANKLES are so tight from sitting, that you have trouble with Dorsi Flexion (toes to sky); this will greatly effect SPEED, POWER & STRENGTH.

But, what if we could save time, and have a shorter warm up?

What if we held ourselves better and put ourselves in better positions throughout the day, so we don’t have to spend as much time warming up…

It’s certainly possible!

The Best Work Posture

The most ideal position would be the one below:

A standing desk with an external mouse and a keyboard:

-Keeping your feet shoulder-width with weight evenly distributed throughout both feet.

-Toes facing forward.

-Your computer placed as close to eye level, as possible, so you don’t have to shift your neck away from being neutral.

–Standing straight, long and erect at all times like a string is pulling your head to the sky.

Floor Sitting

Another possible position is to work from the floor.

This is one of the best positions to work from, because you can get constantly get into different positions every 10-15 minutes.

You can actually mobilize your body while working! Talk about using time wisely..

A big part of yoga is taking your practice off the mat into the rest of your day, whether that be mentally through the power of breath or physically through your positions in daily life, like; working, eating, standing, etc.

As seen above, I am working in a 90-90 stretch, working the INTERNAL & EXTERNAL ROTATION OF THE HIPS.

But how do you actually do this:

-Find yourself a nice floor to sit on and use a small table or the seat of your chair as your desk.
-Set your Computer down, with your external mouse and keyboard.
-Get into a 90-90 stretch as shown.
-It doesn’t matter what side you start on, because you will be alternating.
–Keep your head  directly over your pelvis as much as possible. Find that long stack!
–Keep them shoulders level (don’t let one shoulder hike up).
-Switch to the other side every couple of minutes.

If you think that you may get fired if you do this in your office, maybe it’s time for a new job? Food for thought…

What if none of this is possible:

I understand this isn’t always possible or ideal. Sometimes, you might just need to sit for extended periods (meetings, on planes, on a train, etc.)

Let’s talk some other ways to deal with constant sitting: 

–Get up every 20 minutes for 3 minutes to shake out, stretch and get your blood flowing again.

-Do 50 jumping jacks, 10 squats, and 10 pushups every 20 minutes.

-Sit at the front of your seat on your “sit bones” with a tall and erect posture and tight core

Does Sitting Actually Kill?

Of course it doesn’t!

Many people love generic blanket statements (like ‘SITTING KILLS’), because they are too damn lazy to explain how to do things properly & they would rather sell you their quick fix product or service.

Making quick bucks with quick fixes will get them rich, but if they told the truth, and let people fix themselves on their own, maybe they would actually build a legacy…

I would rather do the opposite, I would rather tell YOU the truth and YOU feel, look and move as best as you can.

I would rather advise and motivate you through teaching, and letting you know how and why to fix this problem, instead of selling you some gimmick.

Though, just reading about it won’t do anything for you. You can read about doing pushups, but if  you never do them, you will never actually get stronger.

Now, it’s in your hands, YOUR job is to take action. There is no use of you reading this article and not implementing the tips I have given.

YOU have to be DISCIPLINED enough to take action, instead of seeking the next QUICK FIX or marketing scam.

Hey, it’s YOUR hard-earned dollars you’re throwing away.

Please email me (efriedlander94@gmail.com), DM me on Instagram (ric.fit), friend request me on Facebook (Eric Friedlander) and message me, if you have any questions. I’d be glad to answer them and help you out.

Don’t forget, until we talk next time:

Eat Well, Move Often, Do What You Love, Be Nice to People, Spend Time with People You Love, Drink Your Coffee, Get a Fresh Cut, Cherish Your Sleep

&

BE YOURSELF!

LOVE YOU!

RICKY OUT!

-VIBEYYYYY