Posture: How many times in your life have you been told, “stand up straight” or “sit up taller” or “straighten out your back”? Have you also been told to have an ergonomic adjustment to your workstation, but still find yourself getting the same aches and pains?
I would like to introduce you all to what I call “Active Sitting”.
The difference between passive sitting and active sitting is that with passive sitting, you are letting your entire body stack on top of one another without any musculature support and possibly slowly stretching ligaments and making the wrong muscles work to hold you as well as letting your other foundational muscles become weaker. Passive sitting is often considered to be slouch sitting.
Active sitting uses more of your postural stabilizer muscles to hold you up, releasing a lot of the tension and compression through your spine, especially your low back. Compression of your low back in sitting can cause disc problems (herniations), nerve compression, bone spurs, and possibly some other pathologies.
So the next logical question is, “How do you actively sit???”
Well, the easiest answer is “turn on your muscles while you sit!!” But there is a biomechanical method (or a way to move your body) to turn your muscles on without having to actually contract them. I’m a firm believer that if you change the forces in your body, then the correct muscles will work automatically and resolution will happen.
First sit in a comfortable position (in any chair) with your hips equal to or slightly higher than your knees. Then sit up tall, and possibly over extending through the back at first. Next extend your head and neck, but bring it back so that your ears are just about in alignment with your shoulders (chin tuck motion) and keep your eyes level at all times. At this point, you may feel a slight stretch in the back of your neck at the suboccipital area (a point that often is tight and may bring on headaches). Slightly squeeze your shoulder blades together so that you feel the muscles working between your shoulder blades (not your upper trap). Then, keeping your chest up and head tall, then roll backwards through your pelvis, as to tuck your tail bone under you. At this point, you should feel your lower abdominals work and should feel a sense of relief through your back. (It is ok to shift your whole body backwards to maintain a straight line through your spine.)
You are now “actively sitting”. The initial goal is to do this as often as you can so you can correct your body’s form so it can begin to recognize what it should do. My preference is to try to get into the position 10-15 times in an hour (for those who sit a lot for their jobs or in their day), but not to worry about holding or maintaining for any duration in the beginning. After about 2 weeks of getting the body to recognize it’s position, then we can worry about the endurance of the muscles.
Congratulations on learning to “Actively Sit”. Spread and share what your learn and start helping your body feel better while sitting!!
Stay tuned to more information about posture and exercises to help make it easeier.
Dr. J Wong
Dr. J Wong
