According to the American Heart Association, sedentary jobs, AKA jobs that require you to sit/drive/not move much, have increased 83% in the last 70 years. AND, about 50% of American workers sit for the majority of the day.
DOES THIS SOUND LIKE YOU? Do you have pain in your neck, upper back, and hips? And feel like you are losing your mobility?
If so, keep reading!!
As a Chiropractor, I am here to help!! Let's go over some helpful tidbits that I give out to my patients who fit that profile.
Here is an outline:
#1: Let's Increase Your Mobility
Spinal mobility is one of the keys to health and wellness. When your spine moves better, you feel better, and when you feel better, life is a lot better.
Here are some ways to do this:
Go see a chiropractor: DUH!! Let's get you adjusted. As a chiropractor, we thrive with increasing joint mobility. When your joints are more mobile, there are numerous health benefits, such as decreased stiffness, less pain, reduced chances of arthritis, and much more!
Perform some daily spinal mobility routines. Here are some of my favorites:
Cervical Spine (Neck): Place a towel under your neck, and hang your head off the edge of a bed/couch/etc. Pull up on the towel, while letting your neck go with gravity
Thoracic Spine (Midback): Place a foam roller in the middle of your back, and arch your back as far as you can over it. Sit up, and repeat at a slightly higher or lower segment.
Cat cows are also great, where you arch your back as far as you can both ways
Lumbar Spine (Lower back): Prone press ups are my go-to's. Keep your hips on the ground, while extending through your lower back
Obviously this is not an exclusive list, and you should not perform them unless cleared by your healthcare provider, but these are great starters! I would recommend performing these daily!
#2: Let's Get You in a Good Routine of Office Stretches
There are certain areas on typical office workers that are more likely to be 'tight', based off my most common findings. These include: upper traps, pecs, hip flexors, and glutes. Here are some great stretches for those:
Upper Traps
Pectorals (your chest muscles)
Hip Flexors
Glutes/Piriformis
#3: Let's Get You Moving During the Day
Don't forget your most important muscle, your heart! Your lymph and circulatory system work best with movement, meaning, if you are sitting all day and not moving, your body isn't functioning at its best.
I always suggest to my patients who sit for their job, get a timer, set it for 30-45 minutes, and every time that timer goes off, go for a 5-10 minute walk. Or stretch. Or do yoga. Or jumping jacks. Just something that gets you up and moving! This will boost blood flow to your muscles, brain, gut, helping you feel much better. Find what time works best for you, and stick with it.
#4: Let's Strength-Train!
As with the stretches, we commonly find patterns of weakness in office workers. While every exercise program should be personalized to you and your body, it is good to workout certain areas that are commonly weaker.
These are my 5 areas you should focus on:
Core: Duh, your core is so important with stability. But, we need to workout more than just your '6 pack' muscles. Your core includes your rectus abdominis (your 6 pack muscles), but also your obliques, deep core, glutes, back muscles, hip flexors, and everything located in the middle.
Glutes: As we just said above, your glutes are part of your stability muscles. When we sit all day, our glutes become weaker, leading to lower back pain, stiffness, etc. Things like glute bridges, hip thrusts, deadlifts, help strengthen one of our largest muscles
Rhomboids/Middle Trapezius/Lower Trapezius: Have you heard of these? Maybe not! These are the muscles located in the middle of your back that help keep you from slouching forwards. With our posture leaning more and more forward nowadays, strengthening these muscles helps to keep your upper body in an optimal position. Things like rows, deadlifts, and pulls can help keep this area strong.
In addition to adjustments, we do a lot of muscle scraping and dry needling in the upper back and neck, which is super beneficial for office workers.
If you are an office worker and need some help, we'd love to see you!