How much more enjoyable would your day be if you had no pain at all? Sitting at your desk all day and getting up, moving around but feeling damn good doing It.
I wish more people could say they felt good moving around after work. The problem is that we sit in the same damn positions for hours on end. Whether that be standing or sitting. Just being in those same positions all day wreaks havoc on our body.
Now I had a guy who suffered from back pain for over 20 years, right when he started his job in an office. He used to wear back braces to the gym every session. On top of that he wouldn’t even like to do long bouts of yard work or housework because he was scared his back would “go out”. He had other goals but nothing important than cutting back his pain.
Off the bat we did some mobilization work, and strengthening exercises and they did have a good impact. But It wasn’t changing the fact that he was in the same position for 10 hours a day. So really, no matter what we did in the gym 3 nights a week, It would all get covered up by his work day and go right back to normal, normal meaning pain.
What we ended up doing was having him do two exercises everyday during work and he had to do them every hour. Simple.
After one day of doing this he felt better. Skeptical, but better.
Fast forward about 3 months his back pain was merely just a sporadic phase of the day. No more back brace during his workouts, much more confident doing physical work, and no more missing sessions due to back pain.
It really can be that simple. If we sit in the same position for hours every single week, we are just weakening the muscles that we use to hold us upright. In many cases those are the muscles on the backside of the body and the hips.
So these two exercises are meant to repent that and keep things in a good working order.
THE TWO EXERCISES
1.) Glute bridge
2.) Plank
I had him do these two exercises every single day during every hour and It changed his life.
Now every hour is a lot, I usually tell people now every other hour will work just fine, but no skipping!
Glute bridges- Aim for 10-20 reps. At the top of every rep hold and squeeze your butt for 1,2,3 seconds on each rep. We want to feel those muscles work on every single rep you do.
Planks- Here is not about time. It’s about form and tension. We want your back flat or even slightly rounded (not arched). In that position we yet again want to squeeze our butt hard throughout the hold.
1-2 sets every other hour will do the trick. I am telling you, add these into your work day. You WILL feel better.
In good health,
Jeff
