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4 reasons to de-slouch yourself and sit up tall right now
Feb 06, 2020
Ever wonder why you feel so tired after sitting all day? One HUGE factor is the way that you breathe when you're sitting (and very often slouching🤪)
Can you breathe normally when you are slouched over? Try it and see.... Not so much right?!
CRAZY FACT: Your ability to breathe deeply (aka: your vital lung capacity) drops by 30% when you are slouched over in a weak posture.
Here's the thing: whether you realize it or not you likely spend a significant portion of your day in that position. Your body has adapted to breathing in that position out of necessity, but that doesn't mean its very efficient at it.
Because your abdomen is compressed your diaphragm can't do it's main task of breathing so other back up muscles in your neck and shoulder have to kick in and pick up the slack.
When it isn't moving freely up and down with every breath your diaphragm isn't able to do one of its key other tasks: massaging your heart and abdominal organs. Bet you didn't know it did that right?
Here's 4 more reasons to de-slouch yourself and sit up tall:
1) When sitting, your blood flow slows down significantly. Circulation to your legs is really slow which can cause the blood to pool in your legs, making it harder to be pumped back up to your heart. This can cause swelling, numbness, and even a spike in your blood pressure.
2) When you sit all day (and especially in long stretches over 90 minutes) your ability to process fats drops. And what can't get used gets stored so this can cause extra weight gain around the mid section, hard to lose extra pounds, increase risk of high cholesterol and even diabetes.
3) Being slouched over your keyboard means your shoulders and head roll forward into what is called "forward head position": aka: the keyboard hunch. This cause your upper back to round which can cause pain and tension (aka: tech neck). Too much tension in your chest and shoulders can limit blood and nerve flow into your arms which can cause numbness and pain in your hands, wrists, and arms. Yikes!
4) How you hold your body influences your mind. The position your body is in sends constant signals back to your brain which impacts how you feel and think. This means that a sleepy, slouched posture can leave you feeling sluggish, guarded, fearful, negative, anxious, worried, or even sad. Alarmingly, researchers are concerned that sitting so much and being rounded over our phones is likely the cause behind the rising rates of depression and anxiety in the last few years.
So what does all this mean? Since your heart is arguably one of your most important organs keeping it healthy is VITAL!!
Join me this month as I combine the wisdom of modern science with the ancient healing practice of Yoga to share tools to take care of your body and mind at work to keep your heart healthy and happy with:
FREE LIVE TRAINING ON FRIDAY MAY @29TH @9AM HST TO LEARN THE ABC'S OF STRONG POSTURE!
Join us for a free live workshop to learn how to:
- activate sleepy core muscles for stronger posture
- get rid of nagging neck, shoulder, and back pain
- de-stress for more creativity and concentration
- have consistent energy all day for higher productivity and greater impact