How to beat office posture: Rounded shoulders and tight hips

WHAT IS OFFICE POSTURE?

Office posture generally appears in two main areas. The shoulder & upper back as will as the hip. This is something we see all the time. One of the biggest concerns with this posture is that it can make exercise hard. You can very quickly end up with a shoulder or lower back injury. This is a huge problem for someone that wants to exercise consistently and can set off what we call the cycle of doom.

WHAT DOES OFFICE POSTURE LOOKS LIKE?

When you spend hours leaning forward over a computer you are going to roll your shoulders forward creating that rounded look. To then compensate, you will likely stiffen your neck up. Over time this becomes comfortable and eventually, normal. You’ll find yourself sitting like this at home, in the car and even when you’re sleeping. 

The front part of your hip is the other area that is going to be heavily affected. This is due to prolonged sitting. Sitting at your desk, your couch and in the car for long amounts of time can really tighten your hips up. This is not exclusive to office posture though. Tradespeople who spend a lot of time leaning forward or bending down are also shortening their hip muscles.

THE SHOULDER

You will see restricted movement overhead indicating tight lats. This also adds extra pressure to the lower back.

When moving your arms backwards, your shoulder will actually slide forward and then upward. This indicates a tight chest and upper trap. 

This will then cause the muscles of the upper back to sit in a stretched position. Unfortunately, when in a stretched position a muscle is at it’s weakest. This means those upper back muscles become weaker and weaker over time until the tighter muscles take over.

Finally, the neck muscles start working harder to keep you tall and upright. This leads to tightness all through the neck region. 

THE HIP

Your hip flexor muscles spend all day in a shortened position. They will naturally tighten right up. 

This will draw your pelvis forward. In this position you can see the abdominal and glute muscles are in a stretched position. Similar to the upper back, they become weaker over time. 

To compensate, you start to see the lower back area picking up all the slack. This leads to the lower back area working much harder than it is really capable of and is the beginning of the all to common lower back pain. 

This is noticeable in the picture printed earlier.