Dear Desk Jockeys,
If you only take one piece of advice from all the topics I've ever written about, let it be this:
Learn about proper ergonomics when sitting for long periods of time.
Trust me. Your body will thank you for it. I sat at a desk for 10 years, 40+ hours per week. It's by far the most destructive thing I've ever done to my body. I only started to use proper ergonomics the last 2 years of those 10 total. The previous 8 years, I had horrible posture. Horrible.
I’m not going to sugar coat it. People who sit at a desk with bad posture need to understand they are destroying their bodies at an incredible rate. When you’re destroying something 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, it won’t take long before things start to decline and fall apart. Once it gets so bad past a certain point, you won't even know what "right" is. And if you do try to sit "right", it'll hurt like hell because your body is so out of whack (muscles, tendons, skeletal alignment, all of that).
Sitting with bad posture is a huge issue that’s going to lead to pain, doctor visits, being less active, a decrease in quality of life, future surgery, etc, etc. Who knows what could happen? The (unfortunate) possibilities are endless.
Sitting at a desk with proper ergonomics will not only decrease everyday pain, but it will improve your efficiency, flexibility, and range of motion in the gym and on the playing field. People need to learn that they can fix bad ergonomics by taking a few small steps and implementing them into their daily routine. It’s not going to be easy to break out of these bad habits. However, it’s very attainable.
No matter how good we think our posture is, chances are that it could always be better. The goal is not to have perfect posture 100% of the time while standing, walking, sleeping, and sitting. No one does that. High Speed Health is built on concepts that are consistent for long periods of time, like a permanent lifestyle for example. It's not about being perfect all the time so that successes run out or burn out. The idea is to find a happy medium that is still a major improvement over our past ways. A very attainable goal would be to eliminate as many bad habits as possible, reducing unnecessary muscle stress and pain, therefore increasing quality of life.
Speaking of "increasing quality of life", I ran across an eye-opening video where Kelly Starrett talks about posture. Or better yet, "sexy" ways to survive the destruction of sitting for long periods of time, while we create amazing concepts and ideas.
You've only destroyed your body for 1920 minutes this week (so far). Only 480 more to go til the weekend! Now, reward yourself with the nicest thing you can possibly do for your body and watch this 10 minute video:
http://www.5min.com/Video/Kelly-Starrett-of-Crossfit-San-Francisco-517516680
Kelly Starrett is 1 of my top 2 favorite bloggers of all time. His project, The MobilityWod Program, is a mind-blowing and creatively functional blog that should be part of every athletic desk jockey's life. I've done it no justice by explaining it, so I'll quote his purpose that's posted on his own site, www.mobilitywod.com:
"The MobilityWod Program - This blog is intended as a jump off point for athletes to systematically begin to address their nasty tissues and grody joint mobility. Use at your own risk and stop if you think it's gonna hurt you, your spine is going to come out your throat, or your face goes numb. But, understand that you should be responsible for your own business. Don't wait until you need a new
knee. Pony up."
Get familiar with Kelly's www.mobilitywod.com to take more accountability for your body and let him help you take EVERYTHING in your life to the next level.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Side note: A big thanks goes out to friend Melissa Gilmore for creating this rough draft logo for me. I've got big plans in the near future for HSH, stay tuned!
If you only take one piece of advice from all the topics I've ever written about, let it be this:
Learn about proper ergonomics when sitting for long periods of time.
Trust me. Your body will thank you for it. I sat at a desk for 10 years, 40+ hours per week. It's by far the most destructive thing I've ever done to my body. I only started to use proper ergonomics the last 2 years of those 10 total. The previous 8 years, I had horrible posture. Horrible.
I’m not going to sugar coat it. People who sit at a desk with bad posture need to understand they are destroying their bodies at an incredible rate. When you’re destroying something 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, it won’t take long before things start to decline and fall apart. Once it gets so bad past a certain point, you won't even know what "right" is. And if you do try to sit "right", it'll hurt like hell because your body is so out of whack (muscles, tendons, skeletal alignment, all of that).
Sitting with bad posture is a huge issue that’s going to lead to pain, doctor visits, being less active, a decrease in quality of life, future surgery, etc, etc. Who knows what could happen? The (unfortunate) possibilities are endless.
Sitting at a desk with proper ergonomics will not only decrease everyday pain, but it will improve your efficiency, flexibility, and range of motion in the gym and on the playing field. People need to learn that they can fix bad ergonomics by taking a few small steps and implementing them into their daily routine. It’s not going to be easy to break out of these bad habits. However, it’s very attainable.
No matter how good we think our posture is, chances are that it could always be better. The goal is not to have perfect posture 100% of the time while standing, walking, sleeping, and sitting. No one does that. High Speed Health is built on concepts that are consistent for long periods of time, like a permanent lifestyle for example. It's not about being perfect all the time so that successes run out or burn out. The idea is to find a happy medium that is still a major improvement over our past ways. A very attainable goal would be to eliminate as many bad habits as possible, reducing unnecessary muscle stress and pain, therefore increasing quality of life.
Speaking of "increasing quality of life", I ran across an eye-opening video where Kelly Starrett talks about posture. Or better yet, "sexy" ways to survive the destruction of sitting for long periods of time, while we create amazing concepts and ideas.
You've only destroyed your body for 1920 minutes this week (so far). Only 480 more to go til the weekend! Now, reward yourself with the nicest thing you can possibly do for your body and watch this 10 minute video:
http://www.5min.com/Video/Kelly-Starrett-of-Crossfit-San-Francisco-517516680
Kelly Starrett is 1 of my top 2 favorite bloggers of all time. His project, The MobilityWod Program, is a mind-blowing and creatively functional blog that should be part of every athletic desk jockey's life. I've done it no justice by explaining it, so I'll quote his purpose that's posted on his own site, www.mobilitywod.com:
"The MobilityWod Program - This blog is intended as a jump off point for athletes to systematically begin to address their nasty tissues and grody joint mobility. Use at your own risk and stop if you think it's gonna hurt you, your spine is going to come out your throat, or your face goes numb. But, understand that you should be responsible for your own business. Don't wait until you need a new
knee. Pony up."
Get familiar with Kelly's www.mobilitywod.com to take more accountability for your body and let him help you take EVERYTHING in your life to the next level.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Side note: A big thanks goes out to friend Melissa Gilmore for creating this rough draft logo for me. I've got big plans in the near future for HSH, stay tuned!
Have a great weekend!
Todd Bowen
High Speed Health
Todd Bowen
High Speed Health
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