Physical Therapy Exercises to Make Sure Sitting Doesn’t Get the Best of You
Many of the injuries we see in Physical Therapy are a result of repetitive positions or repetitive use.
Reverse posturing is a simple concept in physical therapy, with immense reward, that you will notice throughout your day-to-day activities.
Most repetitive activities or positions tend to lead to short muscles on one side of the body that are often the more active/used muscles and longer muscles on the other side that tend to become weaker in comparison. A great example of this is sitting. When we sit for prolonged periods our hips are in a flexed position w/ the front side of our hips, the hip flexors, in a short position and the backside of our hips, the hip extensors or gluteals, in a lengthened position.
Our upper back tends to round or become more flexed, our shoulders roll in with the front side of our shoulders in a short position and the back side of the shoulders and upper back in a lengthened position.
When muscles are put in a shortened position for repeated prolonged periods they become tight and lose extensibility. When muscles are put in a lengthened position for prolonged periods they tend to become weaker and a muscle imbalance develops. So if we can identify these imbalances within repeated activities or postures we do on a regular basis, we can incorporate a few simple exercises to do regularly to reverse these adverse effects.
In our sitting example here are three exercises one could do periodically throughout a day or as part of a warm-up for their exercise program to help prevent imbalances to develop in their system:
Hip Flexor Stretch >> https://youtu.be/19Vz-GNOICE
Pec Stretch with reaches (could be done laying down, standing with your back to a wall, or even while sitting) >> https://youtu.be/KpCnr5XxtHg
Hip Hinges >> https://youtu.be/I_JgEtkTLp8 or Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs)
This same concept of reverse posturing can be applied to many activities other than sitting. If you have a job or hobby that causes a repetitive movement or position, imbalance within your system could easily develop. Think about this concept of reverse posturing. Lengthen the short muscles and strengthen the long muscles.
If you need help determining what areas you should target or what exercises could be helpful, our team at Performance Therapies would love to help you avoid that muscle imbalance or overuse.
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