By now you have surely heard how bad sitting all day is for your health. It affects everything from joint stiffness to anxiety levels. Hopefully, you have tried adding some more movement throughout your day, but in the end whether you are working or in school everyone in today’s world has to sit quite a bit. So what do we do when we have to be sitting down?
One of the best things to try would be sitting in various positions and switching these up consistently. Aside from that it is all about posture.
Superman vs Breath Posture
There are many cues out there like “shoulders back” for how to hold the best posture, but sometimes these force you into bad sitting habits. I’ve seen many people trying to hold this kind of posture only to over emphasize puffing their chest out. It is going to be pretty uncomfortable if you sit for 2 hours looking like old school superman.
Instead of holding that big barrel chest relax it. Then imagine you have a balloon in your belly. While sitting try to fill up that balloon as big as you can with your inhale. There should be no movement in your upper chest with the breath. Continue to focus on trying to get more air in with each breath as you adjust the tilt of your chest/upper back and the tilt of your hips underneath you. Many of us only think about our shoulders when trying to have good posture, but your pelvis is just as important.
As you manipulate your position you will find that only with the correct posture will you be able to get in the most air. Once you find that position you can stop taking maximum inhales and remain sitting this way.
Here is a video of how we teach this method in person!
