Are You Making Your Exercise Unhealthy?
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Healthline
Most people know that sitting badly at your desk, as in the left-hand photo, is unhealthy.
- It is easy to see that he is rounding his back forward.
- He is not sitting up.
- His ear is far forward of his shoulder (even with his shoulders so rounded that the shoulders are forward too).
- He is jutting his head and chin forward.
- The weight of his head is straining on the muscles and joints of his upper back.
Now look at the right hand photo of the bicyclist. The rounded forward positioning is the same. It does not magically become healthy because you are calling it an exercise. It is just as unhealthy whether you are at your desk, on a stationary or real bicycle, on an exercise ball, motorcycle, or in the car.
What to do instead is simple. Sit up. Don't round your back. Are you rounding forward reading this right now? In a chair at your desk:
- Pull your chair in closer to the desk.
- Put your hips all the way back against the seat back.
- Lean your upper back against the seat back, not your lower back.
- Gently bring shoulders and chin back.
- Have your chair far enough in to rest your arms on the desk. Don't crane your wrists to type. I will write more about wrist pain. It should not come from keeping arms comfortably on the desk, which keeps the weight of your arms from hanging forward on your neck.
- Don't push your lower back against the seatback. Many seat backs are rounded outward so that you have to sit bent forward if you rest your back against them. If the seat back is concave, put a small cushion (or loosely rolled towel or shirt) about as small as your forearm in the space between the seat back and your lower back. Do not press against the roll - that makes the useless to stop back pain.
Why exercise in unhealthy ways? Watch people at the gym and in life. Notice how often fitness publications ask you to practice being bent over forward. Instead, get free built-in back muscle exercise and prevent strain and pain just by sitting with healthy positioning.
More on lumbar rolls and how to make sitting comfortable:
- In the book Fix Your Own Pain Without Drugs or Surgery
- Unhealthy Yoga Ankles
- Junk Food Through Your Skin?
- How Good Would You Look From 400 Squats a Day - Stop Unhealthy Bending
- Back to School - Healthy Sitting
- Common Exercises Teach Upper Back and Neck Pain
- Common Exercises Teach Hip Tightness When Kicking, Stretching, and on the Stairs
- Common Exercises Teach Bad Bending
- Can We Teach Young Doctors to Be Healthy?
- Fast Fitness - Contest: What Does It Take To Sit Upright?
- Getting the Right Yoga Medicine
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Read success stories and send your own.
Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links, archives at right, and the Index. Subscribe free - updates via e-mail or RSS upper right.
For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class space for personal evaluation. Top students may earn certification through DrBookspan.com/Academy. See Dr. Bookspan's Books.
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Labels: disc, hip, lower back, neck, posture, practice of medicine, shoulder, sitting, upper back, wrist
6 Comments:
At Wednesday, November 01, 2006 6:28:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
Hi Jolie!
You give such great advice, and I've been trying to incorporate all of your wonderful tips into my daily activities and movements, especially from your posts How Good Would You Look From 400 Squats a Day - Just Stop Unhealthy Bending and Free Exercise and Free Back and Knee Pain Prevention - Healthy Bending. What is your advice when someone is having to bend to put dishes in the dishwasher? It just seems so uncommon to think to squat while loading the dishes. Thanks for your help!!
At Monday, November 06, 2006 5:23:00 AM,
Healthline said…
Good news. Bend the same simple, healthy way, using the squat as in the post you mentioned, for the dishwasher and all bending around the house and work. That's the most important time to move in healthy, not unhealthy ways - during your real life. It is free exercise that helps your back and knees.
The whole point is to change the idea of exercise as something foreign and different you have to stop your life to do. The idea is to move in healthy ways all the time. That is what is meant by fitness as a lifestyle - just what you said - "to incorporate it into (your) daily activities and movements."
Your question about when you should bend in healthy ways is so important to internalize that I wrote you a post: How Often Should You Be Healthy ?
At Thursday, February 14, 2008 9:16:00 PM,
Sloan said…
Dear DR. Jolie. I have been searching the post and archives on exercising right when riding a bike. Cycling seems to be very damaging to the whole spine. From the slumping shoulders to the bending forward at the lower back. I am so looking forward to riding my bike. I am not looking to cycling but more of the leisure biking with the high bar handle. In the past it was hard sitting because of a problamatic tail bone. (fell a couple of time on it). Do you think with the existing pain I have is it a good idea to start biking? I am now doing the recumbant in the gym. Also in the past my knees would hurt on walking down steps after biking for the first time after a long time off. Any suggestions on preventing the knee pain while biking or before and after? Thanks for your help
At Friday, February 15, 2008 12:39:00 PM,
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM said…
Hello Ms. Sloan, biking can be healthy fun. It does not have to be damaging. I commute by bike to most places I need to go. Just sit well and don't slump. Don't round your lower back so much that you sit on the tailbone. Sit more on the two bumps of bone on the bottom instead of the tailbone in back. Try pressing bike pedals with the whole foot, not just the toes. For stairs, see Better Exercise on the Stairs.
At Monday, September 14, 2009 11:07:00 AM,
Anonymous said…
Hi Dr. Bookspan,
I have been using your advice and feeling much better with my upper body issues and knee pain. I wonder if maintaining an arch is possible while biking. I would love to start riding again. Thanks for your help. Frank
At Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:53:00 PM,
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM said…
Dear Anonymous, great news right on schedule, thank you for good work. Just about any position is possible on a bike - arched, too arched, not enough arch. It is up to you. Experiment and send photos. To spot too much lumbar arch, check Prevent Back Surgery. For better neck position (preventing too much arch or "craning"), try Fast Fitness - Stop Neck Pain From Biking.
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