
Posture Affects Standing, and Not Just the Physical Kind - petethomas
http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/well/2015/12/28/posture-affects-standing-and-not-just-the-physical-kind/
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scotty79
Guy complains about being prone to back pain (despite his adamant stance about
the correct posture) then says something like this:

> We live in a gravitational field, and when our bodies are out of line with
> the vertical, certain muscles will have to work harder than others to keep
> us upright. This can result in undue fatigue and discomfort that can outlast
> the strain that caused them.

I have given myself back pain once. Lasted few months and hurt like hell when
getting my head up from the bed (and other similarly straining activities).
Went away while after I eliminated the cause. Which was most comfortable chair
I've ever had.

Chair was perfect and supported me perfectly. I was sitting for hours in it.
But my pose was static. Why move out of optimum? This caused small stabilizing
muscles near my spine to weaken (while the large ones stayed fairly strong).
Then it was enough to lift something bit awkwardly to cause significant damage
to them that took few days to heal (or even weeks before I discovered which
exercise to apply to work the small deep muscle that hurt).

I'm slouching since forever. But I also wriggle in my chairs and get up often.
I found good chairs to be those that allow for that.

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conistonwater
I picked one link in the article at random:

> _In a study of 110 students at San Francisco State University, half of whom
> were told to walk in a slumped position and the other half to skip down a
> hall, the skippers had a lot more energy throughout the day._

and followed the link to the cited abstract:

> _The treatment of depression has predominantly focused on medication or
> cognitive behavioral therapy and has given little attention to the effect of
> body movement and postures. This study investigated how body posture during
> movement affects subjective energy level. One hundred and ten university
> students (average age 23.7) rated their energy level and then walked in
> either a slouched position or in a pattern of opposite arm and leg skipping.
> After about two to three minutes, the students rated their subjective energy
> level, then walked in the opposite movement pattern and rated themselves
> again. After slouched walking, the participants experienced a decrease in
> their subjective energy (p < .01); after opposite arm leg skipping they
> experienced a significant increase in their subjective energy (p < .01).
> There was a significantly greater decrease (p < .05) in energy at the end of
> the slouched walk for the 20% of the participants who had the highest self-
> rated depression scores, as compared to the lowest 20%. By changing posture,
> subjective energy level can be decreased or increased. Thus the mind-body
> relationship is a two way street: mind to body and body to mind. The authors
> discuss clinical and teaching implications of body posture._

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jdnier
You followed one random link, and what? The statement seems to reflect the
abstract.

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conistonwater
Following a small random selection of links is a decent way of figuring out
whether an article quotes its sources fairly — it's common that authors are
either quite diligent about everything, or sloppy about everything, not
inbetween.

The abstract doesn't _quite_ say the thing she says it says. Not that this
shows the overall point of the article is not true, just that a random
sampling (n=1, p≤1) of the sources suggests the article may be sloppily
written and it and its use of evidence should be questioned, not taken at face
value.

FWIW, I think the article is fluff.

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kelukelugames
I think all articles like this are fluff, but I do believe in the placebo
effect. If I believe having good posture makes me happy then it will.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Placebo effect often shuts down when you know about it being placebo.

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LarryMade2
I dunno, depends on what you want to accomplish... Few years ago I thought I
was staring downward too much while walking (Don’t drive, so I walk a lot),
putting my head up more I was more aware of further surroundings and noticed
more things, but found I didn't have as much time mental problem-solving while
commuting as I had previously.

Maybe if I wasn’t so happy an introvert I'd do it more, but I prefer to be in
my mind than noticing the mostly oblivious community.

~~~
vacri
On a related note, I once got a reading injury - I had a 45 min walk to work,
and so tried reading a book on the walk. After a week of this, I had hurt my
neck - your neck isn't really made for bobbing your head in a reading posture
while walking :)

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theseatoms
Also relatedly, I've experimented holding my phone higher than normal while
reading from it, at almost eye-level. But I can't get myself into the
consistent habit.

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sandworm101
Good posture isn;t all about sitting/standing strait. You can sit perfectly
well 100% of the time and still have problems. You have to move, to actually
exercise. You aren't going to develop proper back muscles through sitting,
regardless of how perfectly you do it.

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peterwwillis
> I bought my current vehicle, a Toyota Sienna minivan, largely because I was
> immediately comfortable when I got behind the wheel for a test drive. My
> entire back was supported, so not a twinge was felt there, unlike what
> happens in many other cars. I could also easily see over the steering wheel
> without tilting my head back, which is not the case in most other vehicles.
> And I could reach the floor pedals without unduly extending my leg and
> straining my lower back.

Advice for the author and anyone else with a similar predicament: you can
replace the seat, steering wheel and pedals of any vehicle with one or two
hand tools. Choice of aftermarket parts will be greater for more popular
models. There are some generic parts as well, with little adapters to fit
different models. Steering wheel height is adjustable in most cars, as is seat
position... I would not recommend buying a car just because the default
configuration feels comfy.

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virtualritz
If you want to learn about good posture and proper walking, learn Argentine
Tango. This is serious advice.

Besides, it has a ton of other side effects that are specifically beneficial
to people working in IT jobs.

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GFischer
Tango is definitely an awesome dance (though, as a Uruguayan, I must object
about it being called "Argentine").

It is very demanding, and I never advanced past the basics, but yes, it will
improve your coordination and posture.

Among the ton of other side effects, the main one is you get to meet some cool
people :)

To be honest, I don't like the music that much :P, and many tango enthusiasts
become fanatics.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tango](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tango)

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jdnier
I followed the last link in the article (on weak back extensors) and found a
helpful exercise video to recommend to my backpack-slogging teenage son.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKD2kKa_ME0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKD2kKa_ME0)

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es09
It's all too easy to ignore the admonition to maintain good posture when you
are young. I can speak from experience that our back doesn't forgive that
mistake and it's very hard to make it forget.

I wish that article had more practical advice in addition to re-iterating the
horrors of bad posture though.

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beachstartup
> _practical advice_

do compound barbell exercises. _especially_ if you sit all day at work.

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andrewingram
Careful about that though. If you have typical computer-user posture, you'll
often have a weak back and tight chest muscles. If you jump into bench
pressing (as everyone does) without correcting the imbalance, you can make it
worse. Essentially I'm saying a big yes to weight-training, but beyond
learning the basics of how to lift, your initial focus should be correcting
any existing postural issues, ideally after talking to a physio about it.

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vidarh
And start with an empty bar and increase _slowly_. A lot of people let their
ego get in the way and load up the bar their first times and try to force
lifts way too heavy. Not only is that bad because of the load, but starting
light gives you time to actually learn the lifts while the weight on the bar
is light enough to maintain proper form.

For my part it was the squat that was a major issue - too tight hips is
another typical "computer-user" problem. Some basic stretches for the hips and
taking it slower fixed that very quickly, but I wasted lots of time before I
realised what the problem was.

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snarfy
I admit I started sitting up straight while reading that.

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indians_pro
funny how that automatically happens when someone mentions posture

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TeMPOraL
Generally, reading about something causes you to think about it.

