Elbow greetings from planet couch!
If you’re like Griffin, Tatiana, Ashlee and I, you’re probably working from home in quarantine. Doing our duty to society is something we take very seriously. None of us here at Rehab and Revive want to be a contributing factor to the spread of COVID-19. With that being said, man is it boring to sit at home on our computers all day. I know that I have been going stir-crazy not seeing patients and taking trips to the gym. So for those of you who are stuck at home trying to get some work done, here are a few tips and tricks to avoid any pain you might get from sitting for long periods of time.
If you don’t already know, my desk, for the time being, is our kitchen counter and a bar stool. Well after a few days of sitting on a barstool, and working on our telemedicine platform Rehab and Revive+, I’ve found myself to be uncomfortable and in pain.
Why does this happen? Well, one of the big culprits is your hip flexor when it becomes tight. When you sit for a long time, the muscles in your hip have the mechanical advantage to yank the hip bone up toward the ceiling.
You may be asking yourself, what's the big deal if your hip is a little off-axis? Well, even if it is only 1 millimeter off, it changes and alters your mechanics. It will pull and throw your hip/pelvis into an unlocked position as seen in the picture below.
The yellow arrow is the pull of the muscle and the red arrows are the conjugate motions of the pelvis, lower back, and hip joint. As you can see this will leave your back and hip in an unsafe and unstable position which will lead to ouchies!
So here are a few tips on how to avoid this:
Set your workstation up
Both feet should be pressed into the floor while you are sitting
Don’t rely on the backrest of the chairs you use
Align those 4 dots (see our posture video below if this sounds like Greek to you)
Get up every 45 minutes and walk around the room
Hip capsule stretch
Give these a shot and we hope you are all staying put and practicing safe measures. Hope to see you all soon!
Dr. Justin Lin