Hazards of An Every Day Job

Every time I get stuck sitting at the desk at work I really am not enjoying it. Whether it's covering the desk to help the staff, writing this blog or doing some research, really try not to let myself stay in the chair for longer than 20 minutes or my body just stops liking me. Afterwards I get up stiff and in need of a big stretch. How in the crap people do this daily for hours on end baffles the holy god out of me. I know a bunch of people have hit on this subject, but I wanna join the club and put my 2 cents in.

Is this really an exaggeration?

Here are the top 3 issues that occur in today's cubicle dwellers.

-Low back pain: Almost every desk jockey that I train and do an assessment on has some sort of low back issues. With the legs flexed and the hamstrings constantly firing it's going make the hammies short and stiff, tilting the pelvis. Mix in some poor posture with the typing and driving done for the majority of the day and voila you have yourself a really sore and tight lower back causing back pain. The problem also occurs because you are no longer using your glutes, you are just sitting on them, this I know I've hit on before so I won't beat a dead horse. Just get up, move around so you aren't tight and make sure to use those glutes at the gym, lunges, squats, dead lifts, bridges, OK I'm done.

-Poor T-Spine/Shoulder Mobility: Generally the 2 will go hand in hand for this population, not always though. It is possible although rare to have one and not the other. With constant reaching down and forward the pec minor muscles just grow tighter with each day at your desk. Group your glenohumeral joint probably being slid forward along with all those great bench presses that you do WHEN you actually get to the gym and you now are looking more like Quasimodo with each passing day. It's all fixable but generally people are a little ticked when I tell them that we need to mobilize their thoracic spine before we can do any sort of bench because they are so jacked up. Won't hurt to do some sort of row or pulling motion instead of the push-ups or bench at the gym either.

-THE GUT: This one is especially aimed at the gentlemen out there, but the lady's are susceptible to similar issues as well. Face it you are in sedentary life style if you are working an office job, no way around it. The second you stop leaving time for the gym is the second that you start to grow this bad boy. It's a very slippery slope once this happens, especially as we get older. Remember the line about the chocolate shake from Big Daddy? No? OK point being as you get older those donuts you bring in for everyone as a nice gesture don't metabolize as easily and get stored as fat. Same for pretty much all the junk food you eat during the day, including that Captain Crunch you took from your kids this morning.

I've said it before, something is better than nothing, but if you are going to leave the time and burn it at the gym, do something that's useful. Minus the gut issue most college students likely end up with some of the above, but they are younger and it can be resolved much easier. The time it takes a 45 year old male pull out of that nasty forward shoulder rotation is at a fraction for a young 22 year old male. The whole point of this is...?? Sit with good posture, get in the gym and do some pulling with your legs and upper back and put down the doughnut.

Have a good hump day all, go out there after you get done reading this and get after it!