Sitting Badly Isn't Magically Healthy by Calling It a Hamstring Stretch
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Healthline
You already know that sitting bent over your desk, steering wheel, and computer is unhealthy for your back. Then you go to the gym and sit bent over to touch your toes to stretch. It is the same bad bending. It is not magically different or healthy because it is called a stretch.
Sitting and leaning forward to touch toes, even with your back straight, is a common contributor to lower back pain. It may stretch your back and legs, but sitting, especially sitting bent forward puts high forces on the discs of your lower back.
The sitting hamstring stretch also practices the same bad bent forward posture that you already are probably overdoing at your computer, desk, and other daily activities. Modern lifestyle predominantly favors being bent forward, overstretching your back and tightening the front of your body until it becomes natural to slouch forward and uncomfortable to stand straight. Lower back discs become increasingly squashed and pressed outward from all the forward bending. It starts feeling “normal” to stand and move with your back rounded in unhealthy position.Sitting and bending forward is not even the most effective way to stretch your hamstrings, even though it is a common stretch, and has been done for many years. Many things that are common and traditional are also not healthy, like smoking and hostility. Use healthy ways instead. The previous post Healthier Hamstring Stretching shows one easy effective hamstring stretch. Posts to come will show many more.Check back often.
Every day in my Sports Medicine practice, I see patients who are instructors of yoga, Pilates, and aerobics with ongoing back pain from doing bad stretches. They say they need the stretch because their back hurts. Then they learn that much of their pain is from the stretch. When they realize this, they smile, stop the bent over stretches, both sitting and standing. I show them more effective hamstring stretches to do instead. They quickly become more flexible from the better stretches, and the pain stops that they were getting from pressuring their discs and lower back with sitting bent forward. Have fun using your brain for stretching, and putting health back into fitness.
Related Fitness Fixer:
- Are You Making Your Exercise Unhealthy?
- Disc Pain - Not a Mystery, Easy to Fix
- Healthier Hamstring Stretching
- 14,000 Miles on a Bike - Herniating and Fixing Discs
- Common Exercises Teach Bad Bending
- What Does Stretching Do?
- Healthy Martial Arts - for all athletes, not just martial artists. Healthier smarter training for everyone.
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Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail" (under trumpet) upper right. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions.
Limited Class spaces for personal feedback. Top students may apply for certification through DrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
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Labels: disc, fix pain, hamstring, injury, leg stretch, lower back, sitting, smoking, stretch, upper back, yoga
4 Comments:
At Thursday, September 14, 2006 3:28:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
I was just introduced to your blog. Fantastic! Hope to see more useful, practical information. It must be hard to say the truth when yoga and Pilates, etc are currently the dominant dogma. Looking forward to more 'enlightened fitness'.
Dave B. Chicago
At Saturday, September 16, 2006 2:06:00 AM,
Healthline said…
Dave, good work. Yes, more are coming. Each will have fun, simple, step-by-step information to put health back into fitness.
"Dogma is the sacrifice of wisdom to consistency."
- Lewis Perelman
Yoga and Pilates want to do good things through their practice. With straight information, they can. Understanding, rather than doing a bunch of exercises is key. Let me know the topics you guys out there need. If it is something I personally worked on in the lab or with patients until the answers came out, I'll give it to you straight.
Send photos and stories of using my methods in daily life for healthier life. Prizes for the best ones. Enlightened fitness will be fun.
At Monday, September 15, 2008 9:59:00 AM,
Anonymous said…
It's more than a year since I found your web site and bought and used many of your books.Fixing my bad knees took about 10 days to get the swelling and pain down. Since then no other swelling or pain excepting when I walked out of a trek on glaciers with a broken wrist and did not have the wherewith all to pay attenion to my way of walking. Which brings me to wondering when and where you will be posting information concerning building wrist strength. I now have two weak wrists (one from a fall 20 years earlier). I'll be looking for your post on this. But in the meantime MANY thanks for this web service/ your books and your clear insight into these problems.
Also I would be interested to know what further ideas you have on bunions. I noted what you have said in your books but wonder if there might be a non surgical solution. BTW my toes are looking and feeling great from your pleasing advice.
At Monday, September 22, 2008 5:44:00 PM,
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM said…
Anonymous, wonderful work fixing your knees and toes and going on glacier treks. Let's get your wrists strengthened and toes straightened through healthy use:
Several Fitness Fixer posts help wrists. Start with Fast Fitness - Prevent Wrist Pain During Pushups and Cooking and Fast Fitness - Strengthen Hand and Wrist. Then you can (safely) move up to the several posts teaching handstands to help continue wrist strengthening fun. My book Fix Your Own Pain has a chapter on strengthening and fixing up various wrist injury.
The book also has a section on the valgus big toe (turned away from the midline toward little toes) and the bunion associated with it. Check how you use toes when walking, and other practices that squeeze toes together, summarized in the post Why You Need Toe Stretches. Stop need for surgery by easily stopping the cause of pushing the toe sideways. I plan a post on fixing movement habits that promote bunion, but have months of requests already in line ahead of it, so stay tuned.
Keep up posted of your successes and send photos of your treks and other fun. There is no need to have 20 years of wrist weakness. Hope you can enjoy safe fun handstands soon.
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