Have you ever been on your device, working on the computer, or using your phone, and you developed neck pain or shoulder pain, maybe even a headache? Well, I want to give you some tips on how to improve your posture on your own, at home. Tip number one deals with ergonomics, tip two deals with movement and tip three incorporates strengthening.
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Ergonomics
A lot of times people think of ergonomics as how you’re typing, maybe when developing carpal tunnel, but ergonomics is huge! I’ve seen so many more people now in the white collar world having to have neck surgery or having degenerative issues in their neck, because they’re not using proper ergonomics, they’re not getting movement. With ergonomics being the first tip, what you want to focus on primarily as you’re sitting at your computer or laptop are these 3 points.The center of your ear, the center of your shoulder, and the center of your hip, should be lined up straight up and down, so your not leaning forward, but you’re upright sitting on your sit bones and not your tailbone. If you’re standing, which is a great option as well, you want to have the center be your ankle bone with the center of the hip, shoulder, and then ear. These are the points to focus on to get into proper alignment.
When you’re looking at your monitor it should be about arms length away from your body. Next you want to make sure the center of the screen is eye level. So, if you’re looking at the top of the screen, you should actually feel like you’re looking up a little. That will get your head and neck into an ideal ergonomic position. These are probably the two biggest tips for people working on a computer.
Now, something else that happens is, if you’re at home watching TV, reading on a tablet, reading a book, or even on your phone, what you want to do is, if you’re sitting down get a pillow on top of your lap so you can rest your elbows on it. So,you’re looking more straight ahead at that device. The other thing is you want to make sure you’re sitting on your sit bones that helps get you more upright and don’t sit on your tailbone, which is going to make you slouch more.
Movement
The second tip is you’re going to want to make sure you’re getting movement. There’s several things you can do, but one is don’t sit more than 60 minutes. Get up, walk around, go get a drink, go to the bathroom, even walk around your chair. You could even do a simple exercise that I’ve shown many people how to do and it’s very helpful. Essentially your elbow’s going to be at shoulder height, the tip of the finger is going to point up, towards the sky and your chin’s going to point up at the tip of the finger, and you’re going to go back and forth five times, every hour. CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO That’s gonna help improve the muscle, the tone, and how awake they are to support your body, instead of just being in this one plane of looking up and down at your monitor and the work that you have going on. Getting things moving is critical to maintaining optimal health for your body. If your body’s not moving, it’s going to start degenerating, which is decaying or dying.
Strengthening
The third tip is to strengthen. What can you do to strengthen your body for better posture? There are 3 simple exercises you can do to help. First, laying on your back, you’re going to hold your head up just a little bit with your eyes looking up at the ceiling. You don’t want to tuck your chin, you don’t want to let your chin go up, but you’re going to hold that position for about three seconds. It might feel shaky, but you’re going to do that for three seconds, 10 repetitions. Try to do that twice a day, in the morning and evening.
The second exercise you can do are planks. You’re going to get on your elbows and if you’re strong enough, you can do it on your forearms and your toes. If you’re not feeling strong enough with that, you can do it on your forearms and knees. The goal with this is to be able to do the plank for 2-3 minutes. If you can’t do that right away, that’s okay, build up to that by increasing whatever your comfort level is. Meaning try to add 5 or 10 seconds each time you do it, as you build up to 2-3 minutes, do this daily.
The third exercise would be using a band and pulling it apart. Start with a band here in front of you one end in each hand at shoulder level. Now pull your hands apart keeping your elbows straight and pull back and pinch your shoulder blades together, stretching the band and the band should feel like it is giving you moderate resistance. Hold for three seconds and release repeat 10-20 times. These 3 exercises are going to be helpful to strengthen the back of your shoulders, and that’s going to help improve your posture.
Solution
So the three tips here again, are to change your ergonomics, get more movement, and to strengthen. Hope those are helpful for you, follow along for more great content, and we look forward to seeing you in the future.