A Healthy Midsection
Last week, I kicked off a new series here on the blog and over at Stay-at-Home Yoga, my virtual yoga studio, designed to help anyone who spends a significant amount of time working, playing, eating, driving or relaxing in a seated position (aka, almost everyone).
Today we’re moving up in the body to the hips, glutes and core. Let’s talk for a minute about what happens to our midsection while we log quality time with our chair, couch, driver’s seat, etc. The hip flexors, who have the important job of pulling the knee upward, are contracted. And, the more we sit, the tighter the hip flexors become, making back pain inevitable.
It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that sitting on your butt all day does not leave you with a toned behind. But, did you know that weak glutes are a huge culprit of low back pain. Healthy glutes help stabilize the tailbone and support the low back muscles. Weak glutes…not so much.
To understand what happens to our core while we are sitting, we have to first understand the job function of the core muscles. The core muscles should be able to stabilize the spine, ribs and pelvis when we are moving our arms and legs. It is this stabilizing power that improves our balance, coordination and posture. When we are seated, our core muscles don’t get much practice doing their job, and they begin to forget how to act as stabilizers. Use it or lose it, plain and simple.
So, in addition to minimizing your sitting time, you really should roll out your yoga mat a few times this week and work with these three poses:
- 1. Open your tight hip flexors with some lunges. This post has a few of my favorite lunge variations.
- 2. For you weak core, hang out in plank pose for up to two minutes. You’ll feel that the next day!
- 3. For your weak glutes, bridge pose is one of my favorites. Pull the feet toward your head (instead of pushing them away) to ensure you are using the right muscles (your buns and hamstrings!) to lift the pelvis up.
Of course, I have to mention that a full yoga class and two yoga break videos designed specifically to lengthen your hip flexors and strengthen your glutes and core opened in the Yoga for Desk Jockeys series over at Stay-at-Home Yoga today. Lots of love for your midsection this week.
