| ▲ | naming_the_user 6 days ago |
| I'll admit to not reading the entire article here but I think that mostly people mistake posture issues for lack of exercise / being sedentary in general. If you work out a minimal amount and build some core strength / back muscles etc then you'll find that your posture naturally corrects itself whilst walking, that sitting in a chair for extended periods isn't as rough, etc. |
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| ▲ | marmakoide 5 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| I fixed my recurrent back pain with a 6 mn daily morning, ie. plank, side plank, reverse plank, 1mn 30 sec each. Posture muscles are not very well known in the general public. Loss of strength due to aging and sedentary lifestyle makes standing, seating, etc uncomfortable. |
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| ▲ | namaria a day ago | parent [-] | | The best posture is your next posture. I'd say as long as you use all your muscles meaningfully everyday, and don't spend hours in a single position, you're good. |
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| ▲ | A_D_E_P_T 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Lifting weights can certainly help, though people who focus on the bench press and neglect their upper back muscles may find that their posture actually gets worse, rather than improves. (Yet it's interesting, though hardly relevant for most of the population, that bulky upper back muscles can also look like bad posture. In extreme cases, a very well-developed upper back can even result in a mild hunchbacked appearance.) More to the point, those posture correction devices actually work. The shoulder straps are okay. The Chinese sell a slim metal device -- I've never seen it in the USA -- that fits around your neck and prevents you from looking down and slouching over. That damn thing is like magic. A few two-hour sessions over a few days can markedly improve your posture. |
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| ▲ | pixelatedindex 5 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Having a hard time visualizing this. Is it possible to get one from like AliExpress? | | | |
| ▲ | tartoran 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Another heuristic I use is you should not get a glance of your feet when standing tall. It's not like a device but it's free and you always have with you, you just need to remember to check. |
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| ▲ | n4r9 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I've found this to be the case for myself. And "minimal" can be pretty quick - work up to a set of 5 squats with your body weight on the bar, once or twice a week, say. |
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| ▲ | rootusrootus 5 days ago | parent [-] | | I must be old or I have a different idea of minimal. A set of squats at ~200 pounds is entirely doable in time, yes, but my guess is it would be non-trivial for much of the adult population. Even when we were doing conditioning in high school I don't recall that a significant fraction of the class was breaking much over 225 or so. | | |
| ▲ | naming_the_user 5 days ago | parent | next [-] | | The issue is that people stop exercising at all as adults which makes about as much sense as stopping teeth brushing. If you just consistently do a little bit of strength training then it never gets hard, you just very slowly tail off in absolute strength which is fine. The average adult probably also isn’t great at learning for example because they just stop once they finish school. | |
| ▲ | yesco 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Gaining reliable access to the equipment can also be tricky depending on your budget, schedule and floorplan. I personally couldn't really get a good habit going until I could purchase the equipment and make it available from home. Prior to that I was intermittently going to a gym but Covid really drilled into me how transient that access can be. Considering how far you can go with just a few gallons of water, would be nice if there was more innovation in this space to increase accessibility in a safe way. While the bars and weights are one thing, it's ultimately the lack of a rack that makes squats troublesome imo. | | |
| ▲ | n4r9 5 days ago | parent [-] | | I've never had space to store the bar itself, but if I had a home gym I'd be okay with a couple of stands like this: https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/mp/york/york-squat-stands/_/R-... You have to learn how to bail, but (depending on low vs high bar) you can get pretty confident at it | | |
| ▲ | thefaux 4 days ago | parent [-] | | Yeah, I have a bar and weights but no racks so I'm limited to front squats and only what I can power clean. I feel though that this has forced me to work on the power clean which is a very satisfying exercise to do well. I've been power cleaning/squatting about once per week for a year and think this is a pretty good approach since it is almost impossible for me to try and lift too much so injury risk is low. The downside is perhaps slower development than if I could easily overload, but I'm in no hurry. | | |
| ▲ | n4r9 4 days ago | parent [-] | | Be careful now, you're veering dangerously close to trying out olympic weightlifting. |
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| ▲ | n4r9 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I meant minimal in terms of time. I get your point though. Still, a set of your 5RM is going to do wonders for many people no matter how strong you already are. And if you're putting a bit of thought into form and diet, I believe most people can work up to around 80kg with a year of practise twice a week. | |
| ▲ | Aeolun 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I find it quite hard to lift myself on any bar. You don’t need a sports club for it though, which is nice. | |
| ▲ | fire_lake 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Many people lack the mobility to squat at all! Correcting this takes considerable time. | |
| ▲ | vhcr 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | 200lb means a BMI of 25 if you're 6'3", which is like 3-4% of the male population in the US, unless you're taller than that it would probably be a better idea to lower your weight first. | | | |
| ▲ | 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | [deleted] | |
| ▲ | nightowl_games 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Yeah I've been lifting consistently basically my whole adult life - with coaches, and squatting your body weight with proper form is difficult. Maybe 1/10 people I see regularly go to the gym actually squat at full depth. I can squat my body weight, but it took me a very long time and multiple coaches to get there with proper form. People need to set realistic goals, like squatting _no added weight_. Seriously, squat with no bar and get your butt below your knees. That alone is a serious movement, you can get fit with just that. |
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| ▲ | someguy101010 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I'll just provide a quick counter to this based on my own experience. A few years ago I had been in my best shape (daily exercise, cardio and weight lifting) and started experiencing some forearm pain. I thought it was just from over use from typing but i finally went to a physical therapist and found that the pain came from me hunching over on my computer and putting a lot of strain on my fore arms. The posture I took on was a combination of 1. Just leaning in to my computer because I'd be trying to read text or getting "into" whatever i'm working on 2. My upper back not having the endurance or development that I needed to hold up my upper body. I had to change my exercise routine to give my muscles more endurance to hold my upper back up while seated. So yea, exercise is definitely going to help but I wouldn't just say it fixes things automagically for you and you could run into posture issues even when you are doing the right things in life. :) |
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| ▲ | partomniscient 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | I think the whole industry wrecked our posture, and it goes back to the CRT era. The CRT monitors were big heavy things that sat on the desk. There effectively wasn't much manoueverabilty in a CRT stand, and only the expensive/later models had them. The CRT was below eye level, so we all tilted our head forward and looked at a downward angle When flat screen monitors came along, the didn't originally stray far the the height the CRT's were at, but monitor stands slowly started to increase in height over time and things are a bit better now - and the additional options for mounting them in various ways has improved things immensely. When you're seated or standing at your desk with correct posture, the centre of your monitor should be the same height as your eyes as if you were looking into a mirror. In fact to compensate so many people are looking down at their phone screens we could possibly put the computer monitor even higher to balance things out. | |
| ▲ | leoqa 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Get a long monitor arm and pull the monitor out from the desk. Mine sits almost flush with the desk, with my arms going underneath to the keyboard/mouse. This helped me remain sitting upright without leaning forward. | | |
| ▲ | lhamil64 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | I'm legally blind (I'm very nearsighted, to the point where I need to be within an inch of the screen to see it), and this is basically how I use my computer comfortably. I have my monitor arm mounted to the front of the desk, to the left of my monitor. This allows me to have the monitor slightly out from the front of the desk but still put my hands under it to the keyboard. This does create some awkward situations though, like using a webcam is challenging because I'd need to push my monitor back but then I can't see it! I usually put the camera off to the side on the rare occasions that I need to be on video. | |
| ▲ | OJFord 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Have you been to an optician recently? I was finding myself leaning in, then had a test earlier this year and, well, now I have a (very mild) prescription. | | |
| ▲ | tartoran 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | I've have been prescribed +.5 a long time ago, more than 15 years ago I think. Was warned that once you go forward you cannot go back. I am still not wearing glasses though my vision for small fonts has took a serious hit lately. Back then I had excruciating headaches but Flux fixed that so I chose to forego the prescription. | | |
| ▲ | OJFord 4 days ago | parent [-] | | That's interesting. If I wear & don't wear too much in a day I do get a headache, but I think if I don't at all then (until I do) it's fine so far. The main thing that would stop me now is the reminder of what everything should look like - the world was very slightly blurred so gradually that I didn't notice, but now I put my glasses on and it's like switching to 4k. |
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| ▲ | leoqa 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Yes 20/20 and 20/40 uncorrected. |
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| ▲ | FooBarBizBazz 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > people mistake posture issues for lack of exercise / being sedentary [...] > If you work out a minimal amount and build some core strength / back muscles etc then you'll find that your posture naturally corrects itself [...] I'm missing something. Doesn't paragraph 2 imply that the assumption made by people (paragraph 1) is not actually a mistake? |
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| ▲ | naming_the_user 5 days ago | parent [-] | | The longer version of what I’m saying is that people think that bad posture causes pain and issues and that if you just sit up straight you can fix that. In reality I would argue that if you just keep your back, neck etc muscles strong then you will both sit and stand more “properly” without trying (because it will be easier) and also have fewer issues when you don’t. |
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| ▲ | hn_throwaway_99 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Completely agree. I'm "late middle age", and while I lift weights regularly, including squats and deadlifts, I am otherwise pretty sedentary and I don't get a lot of "functional" fitness (e.g. sports). Recently I decided to find a new hobby and started playing the violin. It was a wakeup call that after just a half hour standing playing the violin with my instructor that my back would basically seize up. It was quite embarrassing! Good thing is I got used to it pretty quick, and thanks to violin practice I stand much more than I used to (and plus I added more back and stretching exercises to my workout). As you say, it really takes a minimal amount to improve your strength. |
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| ▲ | cjbgkagh 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Some people are hypermobile and no amount of strength training will fix that. After many years of trying to get various types of ergonomic chairs and standing desks to work I eventually gave up and got a reclining chair. |
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| ▲ | supertofu 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| 15 minutes of Pilates a day and your posture will be as good as a ballerina's. You don't even need weights. |
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| ▲ | rickcarlino 5 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Even at my peak of training for a 50 mile ultra marathon last year my posture was kind of crappy by conventional measures. That being said, I can run 50 miles without stopping just fine and I have never sustained a serious injury during my 15+ years as a runner. |
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| ▲ | tyre 5 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Those are completely different muscles, so it makes sense that your posture isn’t different. | |
| ▲ | marmakoide 5 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Regular Sunday 10 miles here, then I had the pleasure to experience plantar fasciitis. I love running, but the injuries can be really annoying |
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