Why Beginners Tend To Get Injured: Sedentary Postural Issues

Poor postural habits and training incorrectly for your body will lead you to injuries down the road. Sitting down on a chair all day is not good for your body, not good for your training, you won’t be able to make as much gains in the gym and it can affect you negatively because being in that position and staying seated all day will shorten and inhibit certain areas.

For most people, students and office workers, they end up in a position where they are sitting, typing away on a keyboard, rounding forward and internally rotated for an extended period of time. The hip flexors become shortened and tight compared to it being at rest when you are standing. Other areas that are affected include the hamstrings and lower back.

A muscle can become overactive if you train it a lot (e.g. squatting 2-3 times a week). When you combine an overactive muscle with a shortened muscle, that is a disastrous combination and an injury waiting to happen. For example, the hip flexor that got tight from all the time spent sitting and you start training it a lot, it can create a shearing force on the lower lumbar which can cause a lot of SI joint problems when it comes to squatting. Certain sports, such as powerlifting, has high demands on mobility and injuries can occur when you are going from a place of tight inhibited muscles to making them overactive. Here is a fantastic article about the potential issues that can arise from sitting down for too long and being inactive then deciding to train.

If you are serious about training, you have to work on your mobility and you should make sure that you are not sitting down at a desk for too long, several hours on end. It is recommended to stand up every 15-30 mins, move around and not let that particular pattern set in on your body. Studies have shown that over time as a person continues sitting, not being active, these areas get more and more inhibited, eventually to the point where some people are rounded over and forward-like, indicating that their back may have some excessive anterior pelvic tilt going on.

When I was training 40-50hrs a week several years ago, my mobility was far greater because I was moving around a lot, having to do several different exercises. As things changed over the years and I started spending more time on the chair, those same positions that was once very easy for me to execute have become a lot harder to do due to being in a tight, inhibited position and I have to do more mobility work so I now understand both sides of the equation.

To neatly summarize it, 2 links will be included for things that you guys can do to fix any postural problems you may have. I can't fix your job, I can't fix you having to go to school but I can give some recommendations. First is Kelly Starrett with a shoulder mobility routine and Joe Franco with his Limber 11 lower body mobility routine. Is this gonna solve every single individual unique problems? NO. But if you do this every single day, you will get greater mobility thus it will be easier to train, train harder, train consistently and not get injured.

#Injuries #Posture #Training #Mobility