Don’t Be a Seated Chair Victim

If you are a good studious student, you probably sit a lot. If you are a desk worker, you definitely do a good amount of sitting. If you enjoy sitting around watching TV, same story. This is a problem. Over time your body adapts to this seated position, muscles get chronically shortened, and this can lead to a multitude of problems. 

First of all, sitting puts your body in a chronically flexed position. When this happens, your hip flexors shorten, your back becomes kyphotic, your shoulders round forward, and your head protracts (figure 1). This is a classic seated chair victim. 

Figure 1: A seated chair victim. Notice the slouched posture and forward head.

Two resultant problems from this chronic back posture include upper and lower cross syndromes. These are fancy names that mean your body is getting out of whack. Some muscles are getting tight, and others are getting elongated, and overall they are probably weak as well. Let’s take a look into what upper and lower cross syndromes look like and how we can combat this problem.

Upper cross syndrome (figure 2) presents with a nice forward head, rounded shoulders, increased arching (or lordosis) of the cervical spine, and increased rounding (or kyphosis) of the thoracic spine, from being hunched over your laptop for hours on end. The resulting posture will give you an attractive resemblance to Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Upper cross syndrome will cause your upper traps, levator scapulae, suboccipitals (upper back and back neck muscles), and pectorals (chest muscles) to become shortened and tight. Opposite those tight muscle will be weak and elongated muscles, including the cervical flexors (front of your neck), rhomboids, and lower and middle traps (middle of your back). 

Figure 2: Upper Cross Syndrome. Contributing to rounded shoulders and forward head.

Lower Cross Syndrome (figure 3) presents as a nice forward/anteriorly tilted pelvis, causing an increase in the lordosis (curve) of your lower back. Tightened muscles in this instance will include your thoracolumbar extensors (lower back extensors), iliopsoas, and rectus femoris (hip flexors). Weakened muscles will be the abdominals, gluteus maximus and medius, and hamstrings (hip extensors). 

Figure 3: Lower Cross Syndrome. Contributes to an anterior pelvic tilt, causing the lower back to go into a hyperextension.

Either of these two cross syndromes will lead to many problems including, but not limited to, rotator cuff and/or shoulder pathology, and back issues. To prevent and combat these, you need to try and correct your posture. This doesn’t happen in a day and it will take a bit of work. Correcting these imbalances mainly consists of making the elongated and weak muscles stronger, and making the shorter, tight muscles longer. Groundbreaking stuff, right?

Some exercises, stretches, and other stuff for upper cross syndrome include:

Cervical Retractions: Trying to flatten out the curve of your neck. You can do this laying on your back, trying to bring your chin down and back toward the notch between your collar bones. This will look like you are trying to make a double chin… Very attractive!

Soft Tissue Massage: This can be done to the suboccipitals and upper trap region, to relax these muscles and get them to elongate.

Pec Stretch: Use a doorway. Place both your forearms up against the sides of the doorway and lean forward, without arching your back.

Shoulder External Rotations: Laying on your side and keeping your arm slightly elevated from your side- you can put a rolled up t-shirt or whatever else you prefer under your arm-and your elbow bent at 90 degrees. Start with your hand close to your stomach and then rotate your arm outward, away from your body. You can also do this standing with a band or cable machine.

Banded Pull-Aparts: Holding onto a band with your arms straight out in front of you, palms facing down towards to floor, pull the band apart and try to squeeze your shoulder blades together.

Reverse Flys: Lying prone (face down) on a bench, hold dumbbells or small weight plates. Start with your arms dangling towards the floor and then raise them up into a “T” position, squeezing your shoulder blades together.

Some exercises, stretches, and other stuff for lower cross syndrome:

Lat Stretch: Holding onto a post, or anything else you can grab that is sturdy, lean forward and let your body fall backwards, while hanging onto the post. Try and relax your arm and back. 

Hip Flexor Stretch: Lying on your side, pull your heel up towards your butt, without letting your back arch or go into extension. You can also stretch your hip flexors while kneeling, placing one foot out in front of you, while the opposite knee is placed on the ground. Pull the foot that is behind you towards your butt, without arching your back.

Hamstring Curls: These can be done on a hamstring curl machine, or by laying prone on the ground, looping a band around a pole, placing your feet inside it, and curling your legs.

Bridges: Hook lying on your back, the position you’d be if you were about to do a sit up, squeeze your glutes and straighten out your body, from your shoulders to your knees, bringing your hips towards the ceiling.

Planks: On your elbows, with the rest of your body straight, like a push up position but on your elbows, hold this position. 

Crushed Bugs: Lie on your back with your legs straight and raised off the ground. Keep your core musculature tight, and keep your lower back flattened against the ground. Do not let your back arch.

Birddog: In the quadruped position, on your hands and knees, keep your core tight while reaching and extending out your left arm and right leg at the same time; repeat with the right arm and left leg. Alternate lifting opposite arms and legs.

These are just a few exercise to get you started and that you can sprinkle in throughout your day. You can also perform these exercises and stretches throughout your time sitting in a chair. Don’t let yourself become a seated chair victim! Don’t let a chair be your undoing. Most importantly, practice good posture.

Ryan Goodell, CSCS

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Performance Does Not = Health

Athletes are the healthiest people, right?

 

No. That’s not the case. 

     Although athletes do have a level of athletic prowess and some of them look like Greek gods, they are not necessarily the epitomes of health. The training intensity and push to reach top-level performance comes at a cost. If you ask any elite-level athlete if they have sustained an injury, I guarantee that they will be able to remember instances when they have physically been beaten up by their training and competitions. This situation is obviously not ideal, but it happens. Even if they do everything in their power to prevent an injury and have great recovery practices, injuries will still happen. Athletes are riddled with musculoskeletal problems and, when it comes time for the season, are rarely ever 100% healthy after the first game.

     For the purposes of this post, “health” refers to that of the musculoskeletal system, not the cardiovascular. Athletes tend to have incredible cardiovascular systems. As impact forces and velocities increase in higher levels of sports, the incidence of injuries that athletes will accumulate over the years rises (figure 1). Athletes are literally trying to push the limit of human performance, and when you do that, it’s very possible to overreach. That’s when sprains, strains, broken bones, and everything in between occur. It’s not always one traumatic instance, like an acute injury during a game; smaller, chronic injuries can accumulate over time and sneak up on them. 

Figure 1: Graph showing the trend of musculoskeletal injuries in relation to a variety of factors related to athletes as they progress and train.

     I think this is a universal principle when it comes to training, especially if you are a driven and competitive person. Overreaching and subsequent injuries do happen, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do everything in your power to prevent them. Aches and pains are part of the journey. Your ability to recognize when you have the gas pedal floored and should pull off a little bit is crucial to maintaining performance for the long run. As long you are trending in the right direction, you’re fine.

     So performance doesn’t always equal heath, especially in athletics, but I’d rather be going to see an orthopedist than a cardiologist. The take-home point of this? Don’t let the aches, pains, bumps, and bruises stop you from reaching the level of performance or the body you want. Understand that this is also a learning process, and sometimes you don’t know what the limit is until you push it. Growth and progress occur in an area that plays with the limit of your abilities. When you exceed that limit, bad things happen. If you are training for performance you are going to get beat up a little. If you are training for health, you need to know where your limit is and try not to exceed it.

Ryan Goodell, CSCS

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Squat Talk: Foot Position and Ankle Range of Motion

     As leg day becomes more and more popular for the gym bros of the world (among other gym goers), we’ll be seeing many different variations of squats. Some of these squats will be good, some will be bad, and some will be horrendous. In this series of squat talks we will deconstruct some of the important technical aspects of the squat that should be universal principles for whichever squat variation you choose.

     Starting from the ground up, let’s talk about foot position. Your foot position will depend on what type of squat you will be performing and, to some degree, on how much hip mobility you have. But to keep things simple lets split techniques into two categories: narrower stance and wider stance squat variations. Generally you will see a narrower stance in Olympic lifters and those who preach the “ass to grass” technique. As a side note, squatting “ass to grass” is not necessary for everyone. But before I go off on a tangent, let’s get back to foot position. A wider stance will be seen more for a powerlifting-type squat because this helps to shorten range of motion and hit competition depth. 

Now where does ankle range of motion come into play here?

     With these two variations of squats there will be different degrees of necessary ankle dorsiflexion that are needed. 

Side note: What is ankle dorsiflexion?

     Dorsiflexion is when the foot approximates with the shin/tibia (Figure 1). The opposite of dorsiflexion is plantarflexion. 

Figure 1: Dorsiflexion (left) and plantar flexion (right). 

Now that we understand dorsiflexion, how does it affect the squat? 

     When squatting with a narrower stance, you need more dorsiflexion to “hit depth” due to the combined knee and hip strategy required to complete the motion. A wider stance, by contrast, will use more of a hip-dominant strategy and will not require as much dorsiflexion at the ankle. Taking a closer look at a narrow stance squat (Figure 2), you can see that the knee needs to track over the foot in order to squat lower. This stance requires you to use both a hip and a knee strategy to get deeper in the squat. When ankle dorsiflexion is limited in this squat variation, you will either need to use more hip strategy or you will see the heels come off the ground to make up for this deficit.

Figure 2: Narrow stance squat. Notice the tracking of the knee over the foot and the amount of dorsiflexion needed to get in this position.

     With a wider stance squat, a more hip-dominant strategy will be used. Therefore, you will not need as much dorsiflexion to complete the movement (Figure 3). The biggest variable between these two variations is the amount of knee tracking over the foot, which will determine the amount of ankle range of motion needed.

Figure 3: Wide stance squat. Notice the knee location compared to the foot and the amount of dorsiflexion need.

     Everyone will fall into a position and variation that is most comfortable for them, with unique difference between one person and another. Squatting technique does not have to be of one extreme or the other, but the principles should remain the same. The amount of hip and knee strategy that you use will be a large determinant in the amount of ankle dorsiflexion that will be required for you to perform a quality squat. 

Ryan Goodell, CSCS

P.S. – I hope you enjoyed my fantastic stick figure drawings.