A Productive Pain-Free Solution for Sitting All Day

Like many Americans, I have struggled with back pain for most of my adult life. I have herniated disks, suffered from sciatica, and dealt with the pain that most with back issues would describe as debilitating. A few years ago, after herniating my L4 and L5 vertebrae, I ended up seeing a physical therapist, Eric Magrum, from the University of Virginia who did wonders to fix my back pain.

Dr. Magrum developed stretches and exercises to fix my poor hamstring flexibility, my posterior tilt issues, and helped strengthen my core. I was religious in following this protocol and my back issues began to vanish. I was far from perfect, but I was able to return to a more normal life. Within several months I was even doing things like squatting and deadlifting again.

My Dad and brother both have back issues and I know some of it is due to our insanely tight hamstrings. Stephanie developed yoga techniques for me to stretch my hamstrings, and I think this also contributed greatly to my success.

Overtime I realized in the gym that I would have more success avoiding back pain if I changed my back squats to front squats, and deadlifts to rack pulls. And by following my stretches and adjusting my workouts, I had developed a management system for my back pain.

But despite doing everything right, my back pain has unfortunately resurfaced over these past few months. I have still been stretching and still doing my doctor-prescribed exercises, and I have no longer been doing any lifts that contributed to my pain! So what have I been doing wrong???

Sitting.

This past semester I had a student teacher working with me in my classroom. One of the things about having a student teacher is that they do a lot of the teaching for you. But teaching is a very mobile and very on-your-feet activity — at least the way I teach. Moreover, I had replaced being on my feet with sitting and observing.

Stephanie has a line she always says about sitting being as bad for you as smoking–or something like that. I just take it as she is trying to make me not sit and a little hyperbole might convince me. I will be honest I like sitting and therefore never really took her seriously. Until now. Sitting is killing my back!

Solution

Recently I saw a study that said two minutes of walking could counteract the negatives caused by one hour of sitting. This got me thinking. There is a common productivity hack that many of the most productive people in the world follow called the Pomodoro Technique. The idea of the Pomodoro Technique is to spend 20-25 minutes on a task, take a 3-5 minute break, and then spend 20-25 minutes on a completely different task.

I will explain more on the Pomodoro Technique later but if I use this technique and incorporate walking into my 3-5 minute break, this could minimize the damage caused by my 25 minutes of sitting. Of course it would be wise to just stand and forget all of this craziness but I know myself and many reading this will probably agree, that sometimes sitting is necessary. 

Furthermore, many of us who sit for long periods are doing so at a computer. Sitting in a typing position will wreak havoc on your shoulders. So incorporating some simple band pull-a-parts into this 5 minute break would fix this. (Last year I wrote an article about fixing this common shoulder impingement issue and if you sit at a computer all day I strongly recommend you read this article as well, click here.) This might be a perfect solution for the millions of desk sitters out there who are struggling with over pronated shoulders and posterior tilt issues.

Here is a video showing five band pull-a-part variations. I like the first two for those of us who sit at computers for long periods of time. The other variations are also good if you are looking to improve your shoulder mobility and strength.

But will I be productive taking all those breaks?

As an educator of both teens and adults, I can tell you that 20-25 minutes is basically the max that you can reasonably spend focusing on one task. After that you become less efficient and less focused. The Pomodoro Technique allows you to improve your mental agility and therefore be more productive and efficient.

In short it works like this:

• Write down the tasks you hope to accomplish in your day. (For simplicity purposes I will illustrate using two longer tasks)
• Perform Task 1 for 25 minutes
• Take a 5 minute break (the Strong Figure version recommends to walk for two minutes and do 30 band pull-a-parts but do NOT think about your daily tasks, it is essential that you let your brain rest)
• Perform Task 2 for 25 minutes
• Take a 5 minute break and repeat walking for two minutes and doing 30 band pull-a-parts.
• Continue to Perform Task 1 for 25 minutes
• Take a 5 minute break and repeat walking for two minutes and doing 30 band pull-a-parts.
• Continue this cycle but after you have finished four of your 25 minute task intervals (the Pomodoro people call these pomodoris) take a 30 minute mental break. This might be a good time to do some yoga stretches, clear your brain, and allow yourself to free yourself of the daily stressors in life.

There you have it. Strong Figure’s version of the Pomodoro Technique. If you sit at a computer all day you should give it a try for a week or so and see how it goes.

Report back here with your Pomodoro thoughts at the end of the week!! We are excited to see how it works for you!

Here are this week’s Strong Figure Conditioning Workouts:

Workout One

Every minute on the minute for 8 minutes:

• Even minutes: 20 Hollow Rocks
• Odd minutes: 20 Supermans

Rest 4 minutes then, every minute on the minute for 8 minutes:

• Even minutes: 20 Squats
• Odd minutes: 20 Kettlebell Swings

Workout Two

12 Minutes, as many rounds possible:

• 10 Burpees
• 10 Weighted Lateral Step Ups (and over)
  • holding two dumbbells/kettlebells at your sides or one heavier one at your chest, step up laterally onto a box or bench, step down on the other side, and repeat for 10 total step overs.

Workout Three

For time, 6 Rounds:

• 200 meter Sprint
• Max Effort Push-ups + 3
  • Once you’ve reached max effort, wait 10 seconds, then perform three more.

Substitutions: if you don’t have access to equipment, you can use a stool or couch in your home for step ups, and instead of KB swings, you can sub a different exercise of choice. In the meantime, start saving up for a kettlebell! You can get some good ones on Amazon.com or in almost any store that carries sporting goods equipment. Need suggestions? Contact me.

Steph’s notes on SITTING:

It’s a little ironic that Erik’s post this week has to do with sitting since I just presented to my department at work this past week about the dangers of sitting too much. Let me add to his post some of the stats I used in my presentation:

• Sitting for most of the day puts individuals at a higher risk for diabetes and obesity
• Women who sat six or more hours a day were close to 40% more likely to die over a 13-year-stretch than those who sat less than three hours.
• Men who sat for more than six hours were linked with an 18-percent higher risk of death.
• Every hour sitting in front of the TV can slash your life expectancy by nearly 22 minutes and 6 hours a day of TV-watching can shorten your life by 5 years.
• MSNBC reported that sitting may be responsible for more than 170,000 cases of cancer yearly — with breast and colon cancers being the most influenced by rates of physical activity (and inactivity). But according to that same article, a little bit of walking can go a long way. (So make sure you get up and walk for 2 minutes every time you take that break like Erik mentioned above!)
• Putting pressure on certain body parts (your BUTT!) can produce up to 50 percent more fat than usual. (Baby got back? Then get up!)
• People who sit for the majority of the day are 54 percent more likely to die of a heart attack.
• Those who sit for more than 11 hours a day are 40 percent more likely to die in the next three years than those who sit less than four hours per day. (The next three years?! That’s pretty scary.)

PS–I bet you all agree with me now that sitting, is in fact, the new smoking. 

Resources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/13/sitting_n_1202800.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/05/sitting-too-long-diabetes-risk_n_917220.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/24/sitting-too-long-death_n_884152.html
http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2011/08/01/bjsm.2011.085662
http://www.nbcnews.com/404/
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/12/05/sitting-down-makes-your-bottom-bigger-say-experts_n_1129377.html
https://www.yahoo.com/health