maintain a healthy back for your future-final

10 Things You Can Do to Save Your Back

You don’t need to live with chronic back pain… so don’t!

http://www.exerclock.com

Table of Contents

Maintain a Healthy Back for Your Future

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Letter From the Author

1. Be an Action Figure

2. You’re Getting Warmer

3. The Truth of Stretch

4. Avoid Core Meltdown

5. Break Dance

6. Ergonomic Windfall

7. Lift Your Spirits…Correctly!

8. Sleep Like a Log, Not On One

9. Drink Up

10. Out of Posture, Out to Pasture

About the Author

About Back Pain

About ExerClock

3Maintain a Healthy Back for Your Future

FACTS ABOUT BACK PAINBy the time we reach adulthood, most of us have had some experience with back

pain. Even if you’ve experienced it first-hand, there’s a great chance you don’t know the

extent of the issue. Here are some miscellaneous statistics about back pain and the grim

reality it plays in today’s society.

• Low back pain is the single leading cause of disability worldwide.

• Back pain is the leading cause of disability in Americans under 45 years old.

• One-half of all working Americans admit to having back pain symptoms each year.

• Back pain is one of the most common reasons for missed work.

• Back pain is the second most common reason for doctor’s office visits, outnumbered only by

upper-respiratory infections.

• Most cases of back pain are mechanical and not caused by other medical conditions.

• Americans spend at least $50 billion each year on back pain.

• Of that, approximately $7 billion is spent from their own pockets on alternative medicine to

treat the issue.

• Experts estimate that 80% of the population will experience a back problem at some time in

our lives.

• Pain affects more Americans than diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined.

• Adults reporting low back pain were three times as likely to be in fair or poor health.

• Adults reporting low back pain were more than four times as likely to experience serious

psychological distress..

• 77% of people reporting to experience chronic pain report bouts with depression.

• Chronic pain sufferers have trouble concentration, as 70% report they have trouble

concentrating.

• Chronic pain depletes energy, with 74% of people experiencing it also experiencing fatigue.

• Chronic pain was estimated to cost $61.2 billion per year in lost productivity

• 76.6% of lost productive work time was caused by reduced performance, not absenteeism.


LETTER FROM THE AUTHORIn 2007, I was injured in an accident incurred while moving into a new house. I could

sense that I was in need of a break, but ignored the warning signs. It was a fateful decision.

Despite lifting with proper technique and being in good shape, a life of wear and tear on

my lower back caught up with me. 3 epidural shots and 4 back surgeries later, I was left to

face a world in which surgeons said I was never to be physically active again. That’s a

tough prescription for an active person in their mid-thirties.

Despite staying in good shape, it was what I wasn’t doing to counter the daily effects of

the strain I put on my spine that hurt the most. A longtime teacher and coach, I spent

excessive hours on my feet teaching as well an overload of time spent sitting while editing

video or correcting papers. That was as rough on my spine as the sports I was involved in.

Ultimately, I made a full recovery from my L4-L5-S1 fusion. I’m now more active than

I’ve ever been, but it wasn’t by chance. In the 7 years since the accident, I’ve learned a lot

about spinal care. This book is a blend of things I’ve learned firsthand as well as

suggestions from the experts.

Of all I learned, the most important thing was the importance of preventative medicine. I

severely damaged my back while in shape and using proper lifting technique. This can

happen to anyone. Sadly, the financial, physical and mental toll it took was significant and

likely preventable. There are ways to avoid this type of fate. I hope this book helps you

avoid future problems.

Whether you are suffering from back pain right now, or worried about it in the future, you

can’t go wrong by being proactive. There’s a lot at stake, and you are well worth it.

—Ben


You don’t have to be GI Joe to remain active. In fact, many of the trends in physical

fitness can actually have negative long-term effects on the spine. It’s time to rethink your

definition of what’s active and take different approach. One thing is certain; science has

shown us that those that are less active are much more likely to develop back problems.

Inactivity may have you moving like a plastic action figure.

Outside of work, everyone should have a variety of things that keep them moving and off

the couch. As tempting as it can be to sit around and do nothing after a long day or week of

work, if you have a sedentary job it can compound the problem and make things infinitely

worse. You’d think that sitting all day would lead to an explosion of energy once you leave.

That's the way it works with kids, right?

We ain’t kids anymore, so to speak. Sitting all day tends to lead to the desire to have

more sitting once getting home. It’s time to mix it up.

Your palate of activities should have more diversity than the Village People, and a wealth

of things done in and out of their beloved YMCA. This creates muscle confusion.

Be an Action Figure!


Be an Action Figure (continued)For once, confusion has a benefit. If being confused got us in shape back in the day,

you could call me the Jack LaLane of confusion. Muscle confusion is a bit different. It

comes from activities that utilize a number of different muscle groups, never falling into a

specific pattern. We’ve learned this highly beneficial to the human body. Practice might

make perfect, but repetitive practice creates pain and muscle atrophy.

That said, any activity, if done repetitively enough, can become a burden on the body;

especially if you are middle-aged. In that vein, some seemingly innocuous activities can

be taxing on the back. Gardening, for example, isn’t overtly strenuous, but can be very

hard on the lower back. If mixed with other activities though, it can be a great part of an

active, yet balanced lifestyle, on top of yielding you all sorts of rhubarb and zucchini.

If you haven’t been active in a long while, you might be very surprised at the activities

that exist today that did not previously. From formalized exercise classes like Spin and

P90X to imported martial arts such as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, there’s too much available out

there to lose to the couch. Even traditional things like bicycle riding have been enhanced

with ergonomic advancements in seats and cycle construct.

Whatever you choose, just make sure you pick more than one and have fun when you

do it. Your back will be glad you did.

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When I was growing up, most physical activities were preceded by stretching while

cold and all but skipping a functional warm up. Turns out, this thinking was backwards.

Studies have shown that its the warm up that your body truly needs. Stretching is best

done warm, following the warm up. Cold stretching does very little for you, and can even

be harmful.

Go figure.

I have found this to be personally true on a few fronts.


You’re Getting Warmer!Or you should be, at least. Especially

when working out.

I spent years competing and coaching in

steamy wrestling rooms. It’s amazing how

much work gets done in a hot room, but it is by

no means a coincidence.

I have also witnessed the impact that a

warmup that includes an elevated heart rate

and presence of sweat has on performance.

That too is not a coincidence. Warmth

improves performance.

8

While recovering from back surgeries and going through physical therapy, there was

no question that the therapy was easier to do in the warmth of the heated pool as

opposed to open air. It wasn’t just my back; it was all joints.

A lot of new-wave workout facilities are located in warehouses; the one I frequent is

no different. In the summer, it is sweltering. I’ve found that most people with back issues

find it easier to move freely in those temperatures. The downside of warehouse workouts

are that it tends to be cold inside, or at least cooler than you’d find in a normal

environment.

Maybe our grandparents were on to something when they all migrated down to

Florida and Arizona. Their joints move better in the warm air.

Unfortunately, we don’t all live in warm weather states and can’t control the weather.

We can control how we prepare for activities performed in cool, or even cold, weather.

One of my saving graces has been utilizing compression-style clothing underneath

workout clothes. Several companies are making cold gear, which I have been hesitant to

wear even when the temperatures are not exceedingly cool. My back moves much more

effectively when I am legitimately warm. That said, you don’t want to be bundling up like

Randy from A Christmas Story (pictured on previous page), to the point of being unable to

move.


You’re Getting Warmer! (continued)

9

We also don’t want to overheat, which is possible if you wear too much while engaging

in warm-weather activities.

There has not been a lot of science done to link cold weather and joint pain, but

there’s more than enough anecdotal information out there to give it credence.

Lastly, a side note on the benefits of hard work done in warm temperatures and

following effective warm ups. As a coach that employed these principles, I had

unbelievably low injury rates over 12 years of coaching. In 12 years, my teams had no

season-ending, catastrophic injuries. In a physical sport like wrestling, this is all but

unheard of.

While there’s no official link made between these principles, I know there is. I’ve seen

it. As we age, habit and familiarity may lead us to skip the dynamic warm up and

modernized athletic gear. You won’t be disappointed by the impact it has on how you feel

while working out. Heck, you’ll even look the part.


You’re Getting Warmer! (continued)


As I mentioned earlier, recent studies show that warming up first is a much better way to

prepare for strenuous activity. It is not to say that flexibility is not of crucial importance.

One thing that troubled me as a high school coach was seeing just how inflexible young

people are. During a time of life when you’d think they could bend, twist, or contort to just

about any position, large numbers of athletes came into my program with the flexibility of a

frozen Laffy Taffy. Unless it’s worked on, this is not a problem that gets better over time. In

fact, it can deteriorate into a severe problem, whether you are in shape or not.

Human bodies adapt to all sorts of scenarios, including disk degeneration. As the

condition of my back worsened, the repetitive nature of the positions I was in while coaching

led to a complete loss of hamstring flexibility. This occurred while being active.

Imagine what happens when you’re inactive. The only thing pretty about it is that it’s

pretty painful. That’s worse than the goo that came out of the 70's stretch toy when it was too

far pulled apart.

Flexibility is a key component to keeping the symmetry of your body intact. Reality is

that we’re seemingly in a constant effort to throw that off.

The Truth of Stretch


For people in sedentary jobs, this is something that is easily forgotten about. When you

are inactive, there isn’t a lot to remind you that your flexibility has stiffed you.

Most people associate stretching your hamstrings and hip flexors as precursors to

working out. It is time to compartmentalize these activities. Sure, they’re great if you’re a

workout warrior. Working out doesn’t mean that you’re hamstrings and hip flexors are as

supple as they should be. It wasn’t until my back was repaired that the impact of that was

readily apparent.

Following back surgery, the loss of flexibility made it feel like I was constantly being

pulled backwards. It was terribly uncomfortable until fixed. It was still doing damage while

my back was bad; I just couldn’t tell.

What about the people who aren’t working out feverishly?

It’s as crucial for them, if not more.

Inactivity, disk degeneration and weight gain are just a few of the things that can happen

to start tapping your flexibility like a keg at a college party. Before you know it, its gone; and

nary a reminder that it was running out.

Hamstring inflexibility pulls down on the muscles in the back, making it difficult to move.

Inflexibility can also lead to muscle pulls, which can be terribly debilitating. As a back

deteriorates, other muscle groups in the body will compensate. It’s not uncommon for the

hamstring to increase in size while losing it’s pliability.

The Truth of Stretch (continued)


It also leaves open the real possibility that opposing muscle groups will erode, due to

lack of use. In the case of hamstring inflexibility tied to a bad back, this can spell

problems for the hip flexors.

Great. Now what’s a hip flexor?

Hip flexors essentially begin at the hip and run across the inside of your leg towards

your knee. They’re very long and very important. They allow the body to lift your knee

and carry out a number of leg related movements. Because they start out at the lowest

part of the abdomen, we often don’t notice them until there’s a problem. Their location

also can mask their inefficiency as problems with the quadriceps.

If you’re working out for the first time in a long time, or after experiencing chronic

back issues for a long time, chances are you’ll feel discomfort and tightness at the points

to the left and right of your groin. Sounds pleasant, doesn’t it?

Yoga classes are an outstanding way to help improve the flexibility, but what that

doesn’t address the cause and effect relationship that led to it in the first place. Exercise

of the area is important too, but once again, if the root of the problem isn’t addressed, it’s

somewhat of a lost cause.

Finding ways to break up long periods of inactivity is equally important to what you

do to improve your flexibility outside of work. Stretches, even if you’re in your cubicle at

work, are vital to avoid the perils of flexibility loss.

The Truth of Stretch (continued)

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I started my life in competitive sports in 1977. At no point through the completion of

my competitive career, did I hear anyone reference “the core”.

Such is not the case any longer.

Core exercises are all the rage, and for good reason. Over the last ten years in

particular, everyone from personal trainers to physical therapists have been celebrating

working your core.

If you want to keep your back working for you, keeping a strong core is of the utmost

importance.

So, what exactly is your core?

Good question.

Essentially, your core is everything that is not your head, arms or legs.

Sorry, I know that doesn’t narrow it down much. As vague as the description is, it

hardly minimizes the importance of keeping a strong one. If you want to utilize your back

effectively into your later years, keeping a strong core is a must.

The good news is that it may not be nearly as hard as it might sound.

Avoid Core Meltdown!


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Avoid Core Meltdown! (continued)Certainly, one’s abdomen is a huge part of the core. My memories of sit-ups and

crunches are not so positive. As it turns out, those might have been part of the problem

and not the solution.

Some activities, such as planking, are incredibly basic and can be done just about

anywhere. Be it at work, in the gym, or at home in your living room; planking is possible

to do just about anywhere at any time.

Inflatable exercise balls have replaced many of the gimmicky, bulky, awkward

abdominal contraptions. It also can be used just about anywhere, even in the office

where space and privacy is lacking.

The list of potential core exercises is nearly endless.

Not all of these activities are going to get you a six pack. That tends to require a lot

of caloric burning, and most core exercises won’t do that. They will, however, provide

stability to counter the presence of a large frontal gas tank, if indeed you sport one of

those.

It’s of crucial importance not to wait until you have back issues to start addressing

your core. The nature of back problems all but renders those impossible to do effectively

once the pain sets in.



Of all the things that we can do to take great care of our backs, breaking up the

monotony of sitting or excessive standing might be the most important.

The reason? Math.

Our days are entirely full of sit. Outside of sleeping, there isn’t any other block of time

that we spend in the same position than many of us do at work; and in today’s world,

we’re lucky to sleep more than we work. All of this has led to a harsh reality that we have

to accept about sitting down all day.

Are you sitting down?

Sitting is quite possibly the worst thing that you do to your body every day. Maybe it’s

time to stand up, move, and take some breaks. For as many as 12 hours a day or more,

some of us park our butts in an unnatural position and work monotonously. Outside of

smoking, there’s not much worse we can do to our bodies on a daily basis and over long

periods of time.

Breakdance!

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It’s a sitty way to live.

Most of us lack the immediate ability to change our desk time at work, but you do

have full control over the way you manage the time spent at your desk. Study after

study has proven that not only do frequent breaks alleviate the pressure on your back,

they improve focus and productivity as well.

Taking a break is great, but what constitutes a break? Well for one, getting up to go

to the bathroom is not a break. Getting out of the chair is great, but it’s what you do with

that time that counts. Much of it depends on the nature of your position, but making

sure the time is spent in a dynamic fashion is very important. Stretching, calisthenics,

exercises, specific posturing are just a few of the things that can easily be done at your

desk or in a cubicle.

Breakdancing might be a bit extreme, but hopefully you get the point. Your schedule

might not afford you the time to head to the gym, but that doesn’t mean you can’t

incorporate aspects of the gym into your daily routine. Your back will be glad you did.

Breakdance! (continued)

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Remember bean bag chairs? They were comfortable when you were a kid, but let’s

face it; they were not very ergonomic.

Chances are, neither is your desk chair. There’s very little that can be done to make

sitting for extended periods of time a more enjoyable experience for you. There is one

thing you can do, though.

You can change your chair.

All too often, the position we’re left to sit in all day is bad enough. You don’t need what

you are sitting on to compound the problem. Unfortunately, that’s often the case. Don’t

accept the chair you’ve been assigned sitting down. If it’s hurting your back, get up and

do something about it.

The bean bag is not just a piece of warm nostalgia; it stands as a great lesson in what

you should be sitting in at your desk. There’s a distinct difference between comfortable

and ergonomic.

Ergonomic Windfall


That couch you have at home might be the most comfortable slab you’ve ever sat down

on, but it may have your spine resting in positions it was never meant to be in. Same goes

for the chair at your desk.

If you are having back pain, there’s a good chance that the chair you are sitting in is part

of the problem.

Ergonomic chairs are expensive, which is why many companies don’t place them at all

their work stations. It doesn’t hurt to ask your human resources director or direct supervisor

if there are any other sitting options available. While we often hesitate to ask for things that

may cost the company money on the surface, in the big picture it might be saving them a ton

of money in future health care costs.

Back pain accounts for billions of dollars in lost revenue and production at work, and is

one of the leading causes of missed work. Paying for a back fusion could cost the company

a hundred grand on their insurance plan. Don’t assume that they don’t realize that.

If they decline to accommodate you, take matters into your own hands. Meet with a

specialist, such as a chiropractor, and see what they suggest. It might cost you a bit to get

your own desk chair to use at work, but the same principle applies to you. If you need it, the

few hundred bucks you throw at it might be pennies compared to what it costs you in terms

of your future health.

Ergonomic Windfall (continued)

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Another major reason we develop back

problems as we age is the failure to lift properly

when we pick things up.

When we’re young, we’re more apt to get

away with it. This changes as we age,

especially if you are spending the majority of

your day with a sedentary job. Bad habits

formed in earlier years are hard to break.

Unfortunately, your back is easier to break

than aforementioned bad habits.


Lift Your Spirits…Correctly!

When you’ve developed habits that involve improper lifting techniques, it’s important

to remember what positions you are strongest in.

There’s a reason that in most sports, the standard, ideal position you maintain as

your base involves bent legs and a relatively straight back. Consider someone in the

weight room doing squats with a bar on his back. Bending over in that position would put

a terrible strain on his lumbar spine.

While that seems silly, it’s no less silly when we pick up heavy items with a flat back.

When lifting heavy objects, maintain a wider base and squat down to lift it, rather than

bend over.


Also, don’t be afraid to get help. Often, it’s not even the weight of an object that

makes it hard to carry; it’s an awkward size or shape.

I can’t speak for everyone, but I’d take heavy over awkward. Lifting heavy objects

can typically be done effectively with proper technique. When lifting awkward items by

yourself, there’s often nothing you can do to avoid contorting, twisting, or over-extending

yourself.

Weight and odd sized items can cause a tremendous amount of undue pressure

on the spine. We get suckered into doing a lot of this, thinking that weight is the solitary

source of back strains. Unfortunately, the only way to avoid that issue is help. Proper

technique is great, but doesn’t always apply.

As with anything else, lifting becomes even more dangerous when you have a

sedentary job or you simply opt not to exercise. Weight lifting should by no means be

your sole bit of exercise, but it needs to be a part of your routine.

If weight lifting is foreign or intimidating for you, don’t panic. There’s no shame in

starting with minute amounts of weight; they make those dumbells and weight plates for

a reason. If you are embarrassed over using low weights, consider this; as a

competitive athlete, I would often do exercises with 5-10 lbs of weight and do them a

very high number of times. Your body will adapt to lifting when it needs to better if you

are lifting in your workouts.

Lift Your Spirits…Correctly! (continued)

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I wonder if there would have ever been a story about Sleeping Beauty if she had

been on a god-awful, terrible mattress.

I am going to guess not. You’d have likely ended up with Sleeping Inconsistently,

Awake Ugly or Awake Angry; maybe a combination of all of them.

You can also estimate that she’d have been sporting a bad back. I guess you can

add Sleeping Painfully to that equation.

Bad mattresses are all too often a comorbid condition when it comes to a bad

back, and the problem might be the easiest to miss out of all of the things that

contribute to the health of the human back. Identifying a bad chair, sedentary job, or

lack of flexibility will all ultimately end up with your body informing you that it’s time for a

change.

How do we know if our mattress is part of the problem?

Waking up with a police chalk outline drawn around your cockeyed waking

position would be helpful, but that’s not likely to happen.


Sleep Like a Log, Not On One


Sleep Like a Log, Not On One (continued)

The good news is your body is usually not afraid to tell you. A key sign that your

mattress is problematic is that you wake up sore or in inexplicable pain; pain that goes

away not long after you wake up. This is an indicator that your mattress is causing you

more harm than good. While tempting to figure that the problem isn’t serious because it

goes away quickly and doesn’t interrupt your sleep, don’t forget the hidden danger in that.

If you wake up in pain, there’s long-term, consistent damage being done to your back. It’s

only a matter of time before those effects become permanent.

Another major sign that your mattress might be ineffective is the age of it. 8 years is

the suggested shelf-life for a mattress. While you may not be experiencing any major

back pain, changing it every 8-10 years is a good preventative measure to follow.

I also think it’s important to pay heed to what your body is like when and if it sleeps in

other beds; be it hotels, visiting friends, or whatever else might lead you to a foreign bed.

If you wake up abnormally sore in another bed, but don’t at home, you can probably trust

your mattress is functional.

So, what’s the perfect mattress? Unfortunately, there may be no true answer for

that. Human bodies are so vastly different, and the mattress encompasses all of it, it is

different for everyone. Finding the right one can also be complicated by spousal

preferences. If one of you has differing needs than the other, it can also be an issue.


Sleep Like a Log, Not On One (continued)

With that in mind, there are a few things that great mattresses do consistently that you

might want to consider when examining yours. Typically, great mattresses are neither

excessively firm nor excessively pillowy. If you sink when you get on it, it’s likely too soft.

Without question, there are some amazing advances and products available on the

market today. TempurPedic makes some amazing mattresses, but they can cost

thousands of dollars and may be out of range. Following my surgeries, I’ve had a great

experience with a pretty firm mattress with a layer of memory foam over it. Quite honestly,

I can’t recall having a more comfortable bed than what I have right now.

The goal of much of this is to keep your back healthy, and avoid having to take pills to

make it through the day. The same goes for sleeping. Sure, if your back is hurting you

when you’re in bed, you can take a sleeping pill to get some rest. Thing is, you’re entirely

missing the reason it’s hurting in doing so. The pill covers up what might be an easily

correctible problem; changing the mattress.

24

Unlike the picture of Mr. Blutarsky,

we’re talking about water, not alcohol.

What a great concept that would be,

though. Sadly, it’s not our reality. Trust me,

I’ve looked into it. Doesn’t work.

If you’re disappointed, you’re not

alone. Don’t fret; there is hope. It’s not as

bad as you think.

We’re talking about hydrating with

water, and its relationship to back issues.


Drink Up!

Believe it or not, there’s a great link between the two.

If you’re walking around dehydrated, and chances are you are, once again you’re

hardly alone. Some estimates state that as many as 75% of all Americans walk around

with chronic dehydration.

That leads to more problems than just a dry sense of humor.

Chronic dehydration can lead to a multitude of problems, ranging from problems with

internal organs, weight gain, high blood pressure and headaches, just to name a few.

You can add back and joint pain to that list as well.

25

The human back is composed of bones and disks; which serve as a sort of shock

absorber to the spine. Disk functionality and size is almost entirely dependent on the

availability of enough water. Disks rehydrate themselves during sleep or inactivity,

provided there’s enough water available in our systems to do so. When there’s not,

there’s problems.

Consider the inflexibility of a sponge that's left out to dry. Disks are not entirely

different. Left without enough water, they lack the size and flexibility to do their job

effectively. If they don’t do their job effectively, you can bet at some point you won’t be

able to do your job effectively. By some counts, back issues are the source for more

missed work than any other issue in the workforce today.

Compounding the problem with hydration is that Americans often drink liquids that

actually make the problem worse. Coffee, soda and alcoholic beverages have an

uncanny ability to actually dehydrate us, rather than liquify us. Much of what we opt to

drink during the day actually flushes water out of our system.

You can lead a workhorse to water, but you can’t make them drink. Saying you

should drink more water is easy, doing it is another matter. One positive thing we’ve

learned with the high-availability of soda and energy drinks is that the average person is

much more likely to drink flavored beverages as opposed to drinking plain old water.


Drink Up! (continued)


Drink Up! (continued)

The good news is that you don’t have to pick one or the other anymore. Many

bottled water companies are making water with flavor added. This is key, as we’ve

learned things like Gatorade come with enough calories and other assorted negatives that

it defeats the purpose of using it for staying hydrated.

I am a subliminally reluctant hydrator. Despite good intentions, if you stuck a cooler

full of ice cold water next to me on a sweltering day, I wouldn’t drink enough of it. It

becomes an afterthought. Put fruit flavored waters next to me and that changes.

There’s also a number of simple additives that can be put in water to make it more

palatable if you’re also a stubborn hydrator. Make sure if you use these that there’s no

caffeine in them. A good number of them have an ‘energy’ component that can turn

around and wring the water out of you like a janitorial squeegee.

It took me 39 years on this planet to finally get the importance of good hydration, and

how to achieve it. I’m not entirely sure what the impact of my own chronic shortage of

water intake had on the dilapidation of my spine, but it couldn’t have been a positive.

Unlike some other aspects of back maintenance discussed here, this is one that has

been talked about as long as I can remember. While it has been no secret, it is often one

more thing that we fail to truly put into play on a daily basis.

You fight to keep your head above water at work. Don’t forget to get your back

above it as well.


Funny how the word posturing has taken on some sort of jaded, slightly negative

meaning in today’s society.

Truth is that it couldn’t be further from the truth. Posturing and the art of maintaining

it, are incredibly important; much more so than most people realize.

One of the complications of watching our perpetual posture is that its much like

breathing; it becomes something we just do, often without even giving it a second

thought. This can be true when we’re standing, but is no more so an automatic response

than when we’re sitting down.

As was mentioned earlier, comfort and ergonomic are two entirely different things,

unless specially designed to do both. Most chairs if sat in correctly would keep our

spines relatively decent position. The reality is that our bodies, seated posture, and

comfort level are very liquid; they’ll find a path to whatever is comfortable, no matter the

cost.

This is true for our work chairs as well as our home furniture.

Out of Posture, Out to Pasture


Often times, when we’re sitting at work all day, we’re doing so with terrible posture.

Be clear about this; you can’t maintain great posture when sitting for 8-10 hours a day.

The best you can do is either to take breaks from sitting, or to have posture that puts less

of a strain on your spine.

To do so is very worth it, and this isn’t just with sitting.

Certain acts and positions in our every day lives put an abnormal strain on our

backs. As I recovered from back surgeries, I learned that live kickboxing was seemingly

less taxing on my lower back than was leaning forward to retrieve something from the

bottom of the dishwasher. Excessive standing isn't much better, and presents a slew of

its own problems.

Posture and positioning are important everywhere, but nowhere is it more crucial to

pay mind to than sitting.

For a lot of you, to be blunt, your day is full of sit. Complete, total, unadulterated sit.

You sit in the chair briefly in the morning before you go to work. You sit in the car or on

the train on the way to work in seats that have the comfort value of a sandpaper blanket.

You sit at your desk; often for over eight hours a pop, taking breaks to walk a few feet to

meetings where voila; you sit again. Heck, even about half your bathroom breaks, all for

some of you, are spent doing what?

Sitting.

Out of Posture, Out to Pasture (continued)


The cost of sitting or standing with poor posture is frighteningly long. From strain

on the leg joints to pulled muscles in the rib cage, all the way to severe spinal issues, it’s

enough to scare one sitless.

No matter how dangerous it is, sitting is something that we can't avoid. We can

make the most out of what we plop our rear ends into.

Each chair has an ideal sitting position to assume in it. Traditionally, sitting up

straight and not sulking into it is the ideal way to sit. Even if a chair is not ergonomically

designed, you can do your best to maintain a good posture. Using an alert program to

program a consistent reminder for you to sit up can be helpful. Most of us don’t have an

evil tyrant of a teacher walking around the room anymore, ordering us to sit up straight

as they smack hands with a ruler. Turns out she had a point.

You hated it then, but might sort of like it now.

In fact, you also might sort of need it….now more than ever. You’re too valuable to

end up in the pasture or the glue factory.

Out of Posture, Out to Pasture (continued)


About ExerClock

ExerClock is an active, engaging wellness tool

designed to alleviate the health and productivity

issues related to sedentary jobs and lifestyles.

Developed by leaders in physical therapy and

exercise physiology, ExerClock is a downloadable

web-based computer program, coupling

customized reminders with individualized micro-

exercise videos that are performed throughout the

work day. This individual and corporate wellness

program addresses the specific needs of each

individual participant.

ExerClock is focused on reducing the health

risks associated with sedentary work lifestyles by

promoting physical activity that increases the

body’s metabolism and strength, drastically raises

mental awareness and productivity, and assists in

driving down health care costs.

To visit the ExerClock website, click the button

below.

.

About ExerClock founder, Cory Schneider

He also is a consultant for physical therapy

utilization review for private industry and is

engaged in ergonomic safety and corporate

wellness.

Cory developed ExerClock from programs

that he built for himself to stay healthy while

performing medical necessity reviews, which

required hours of sitting while combing through

medical files.

Cory is a 1997 graduate of Carroll

University in Waukesha, WI, where he was

also a collegiate football player. Cory enjoys

all sporting activities, the outdoors, travel and

spending as much time with his wife and 3

children.

Cory is a licensed

physical therapist with

16 years of experience

in orthopedic, spinal and

home health treatment

settings.

http://www.exerclock.com


About the Author

He’s also a survivor of spinal trauma.

His career shift allowed for the launch of a

writing career. In 2012 he published his first

book, entitled “Confessions of the Unmedicated

Mind: Volume 1, School”. In 2014 he followed up

with a 2nd instillation of the series with Volume 2:

School.

In addition to his work at ExerClock, Tomes is

a writing, marketing and social media instructor at

Brensten Education in Waukesha, WI. He is

single and has two children; Zander (13) and

Abigail (11).

.

Benjamin Tomes is

the social media manager

for ExerClock. Prior to a

career shift to digital

marketing, he was a a

long-time high school

teacher and coach.

maintain a healthy back for your future-final

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