There you are, spending hours hunched over your desk, with rounded shoulders and spine bent forward, pressing your internal organs down and pulling on the tiny ligaments of the vertebrae in your backbone.
Doesn’t sound very healthy, does it? Not only is it NOT healthy, but sitting for many hours of your day in this hunched-over posture can leave lasting negative symptoms. Instead of being moved and stretched out, the many muscles of your back, big and small, stay contracted. Waste pools in the muscle fibers and connective tissue. The nerves become irritated. You end up with low back pain and bad posture.
There’s one big way to prevent these problems, a way to keep your back strong and flexible, able to support your torso, neck and head without strain or tissue damage. The method of prevention is to take frequent time outs for your back.
Pick a time period. It can be every hour, or 45 minutes or 20 minutes. Take three or four minutes to move your back and get your circulation going again. Turn your shoulders from side to side. This will work your lumbar region as well as the top of your spine. Roll your head around to exercise your neck. Walk to the kitchen or break room several times. You don’t need to move as if you are in a gym – even gentle motions such as walking and twisting sections of your torso will cause the fibers of your muscles to expand and contract, increasing the flow of oxygen to the juicy red muscles and stretching the tissues.
At first, it may be hard to get into the habit of taking a frequent back break. You may even need a timer that sends out a soft signal to remind you. There are apps that can be used for ‘alarms’ as reminders. At the same time, take even more frequent ‘breath’ breaks. These don’t require any interruption in your work flow or web surfing. Just fill your lungs with a deep breath, stretch your upper back muscles out to expand the back and move out of your cramped posture.
Get used to moving your back and hips to keep tissues from getting stiff from staying too long in one position. In fact, you can use this old adage: Ten back stretches a day keeps back pain away. Try it out, you’ll discover that it works.