Do you stand day in day out at work? If you do, here are some tips to ensure you don’t end up tired or worse – in pain by the days end.
1. Stand differently
Obviously this is the most important one of all. Nevertheless, you will not believe the amount of people who seek advice for correcting this posture or that posture but will never even consider adjusting their standing position to begin the needed adjustments.
If you are on your feet for extended hours you can fully engage the anterior core while activating the glutes which will give you an adjustable pelvic tilt. This increased control will give you the capacity to relieve your discomfort effectively.
Remember that the more conscious you are of your slightest adjustments the better able you will be to provide relief. Be continuous and soon you will notice how much range there actually is in the standing position.
2. Learn to exhale fully
Learn about the rectus abdominis and the external obliques. These are two very important muscles for making complete exhalations and tilt the pelvis posteriorly. By fully engaging these muscles on each exhalation, your pelvis tilts and your rib cage comes down. This is effective at dispelling excessive lordosis and can also relieve pressure on the lower back.
I have a favourite drill that was conceptualised at the Postural Restoration Institute. Deep breathing from the squatting position allows for increased length of the latissimus dorsi and also properly flexes the spine toward a neutral position. As the breath is inhaled, the belly extends against the quads and ensures that the air is not being directed into any of the supplemental respiratory muscles, because that would remove the focus from the exercise.
Then there are many other ways this can be applied once you understand the positions and what you are trying to accomplish with them. You can then integrate different cues as you see fit.
3. Break your day up with intermittent “relief” postures
In my professional opinion, it is always a good idea to be moving about and switching these up. It is a good thing to be a “fidgetter”. This is most importantly when you are standing, or rather your avoidance of excessive standing or maintaining the same standing position.
The best thing to do is to break the day up into several periods. Take some time to work from a sitting position. Then Check, emails and do research while lying down facing up. Then you can even try the kneeling position for as long as you possibly and comfortably can.
If you aren’t actually able to conduct all these office acrobatics, then maybe you can opt for the split stance position while standing. It is not as easy to maintain lordosis or an unhealthy anterior pelvic tilt if your feet spread a little more than shoulder width apart. This is why we teach the wall slide variation stance with one foot forward, typically the right foot. Ensure that your footwear is comfortable and supportive – visit the Orthotic Shop.
4. Work in drills throughout the day
If your schedule and specific set of tasks allow for it, set aside a few moments to incorporate different mobility drills in your daily routine. Here are some of the best drills for improving standing posture. Best of all, these will not require any equipment to use.
5. Avoid aggravating postural dysfunction with improper training approaches
People who maintain extension for long periods of time can sometimes get along fine if they are training well. But, the problems begin to arise when standing in an extended position all day and then doing training routines that feed into the postural dysfunction. Another way to look at this is that if you are standing all day and then pounding out the hyperextensions in your off time, you will make for a very tight lower back.
But, it is not only hyper extensions that are the problem. If you are doing a lot of arching while bench pressing or squats you could also be making a bigger problem. If you think this could be a problem for you, look for ways to make a moderate extension and low arching.
Furthermore, you should consider focusing on posterior chain strength and glute activation while keeping the spine in neutral.