I believe that most of us who spend several hours behind a computer screen is or will eventually feel stiffness and soreness in different muscles. A common strategy for combating the negative effects of prolonged sitting is to improve the workplace with better ergonomic equipment, for example, a new chair or desk. If a workplace has the resource to afford better ergonomic equipment which I think is great however I see it more of a padding or if you will a cushion solution. It can definitely relief some of the posture problems that prolonged sitting can affect the body though it does not deal with the root cause, in my opinion, the physical inactivity. We are after all creatures built for motion and if we don’t use it will lose it.
One activity that has helped me a lot with my inflexibility and stiffness in the hips, back, legs, shoulders, and neck has been to incorporate a sequence of yoga poses at least twice a week. By sticking to this new regiment for approximately five months I’ve noticed improvements in my daily life with fewer stiff muscles. The most notable difference was in my strides while running I saw an improvement in the length of my strides now that it becomes less hindered by my previous lack of flexibility.
With a lot of things, there is always a preconception that comes with that particular thing, for me, yoga was no different. Before I started incorporating yoga into my everyday life I was hesitant to dip my toes into due to the whole pretentiousness nature of yoga and my belief about the wohwoh-people/”spiritual” people practicing it. But instead of rejecting the whole practice I broke it down into bits and my conclusion was yoga is just sequence of stretches and controlled breathing. The rest I discarded e.g claims about detoxifying the body, cure diseases, ”chakras” and the mantra about yoga connecting you with the universe.
Obviously, I’m no yoga teacher, neither did I ever join a yoga class instead I did some light reading on the subject and followed a couple of follow-along videos on youtube. Lastly, I thought it would be a good way to end my first pose by sharing 5 poses that helped me a lot my flexibility and which I'm always returning back to.
I.Child pose a.k.a chillout pose, basically you take this position and then you let gravity do its thing. Works wonders for the back and hips.
II.Cat-Cow – This pose has a two-part stage like the picture B shows. This another great pose which I usually do the next day after a pull-ups session.
II.Lizard Lunge – Great pose for me that hits a lot of the problem areas in the hips, thighs, glutes, and calfs.
IV.Shoelace pose- Sit like a sir and stretch them IT-bands.
V.Bow- pose. This is not a wrestling move people but it does wonders on the shoulders and thigh/hip area.
