SittingPosture.com

Bad posture used to demoralize me. Not only physically, but also mentally. I sat with poor posture at a computer for 9 years. Not just a few hours a week. It was a full-time job in a toxic, high-stress office environment.

Poor posture is something many people deal with daily. Whether it is slouching at a desk, looking down at a phone, or feeling constant tension in the neck and shoulders.

These habits caused my lower back and neck pain. For more on those specific areas, check out the article I wrote about how to prevent back and neck pain.

Posture problems like these often develop gradually, which makes it difficult to recognize what is actually causing it.

Because most of my computer-related pain was never caused in the same muscle that was hurting. Muscles get tight, which pulls on the tendon(s) that connect that muscle to bone. Which is where I usually felt the pain first (in the tendon). My tight muscles were the cause. And the painful, inflamed tendon was the effect.

Identifying the root causes were key to making lasting improvements (instead of temporary fixes).

And so today, I’m sharing a round up of reasons that caused my bad posture and how I fixed them effectively.

Continue reading Why is My Posture So Bad?

The human body is usually between 60-75% water. Achieving proper hydration, then staying hydrated, is directly related to how good our computer posture is. It’s very important to keep our bodies hydrated. One of the biggest motivations for me to maintain proper hydration is simply preventing headaches.

Staying hydrated also prevents many other issues, such as causing organs to function poorly, as well as tissues surrounding the spine. If the spine isn’t well supported by muscles, tendons, and ligaments, our computer posture suffers quickly. Drinking plenty of water also prevents the formation of kidney stones. These are just a few of the benefits to staying hydrated.

Drinking the correct amount of water per day can keep the body healthy and well hydrated. The amount of water I drink (or don’t drink) is directly connected to the extent of my repetitive strain injuries caused by sitting at a desk.

When I’m dehydrated, my muscles tense up and tighten much quicker, causing my posture to suffer. When I stay hydrated throughout the day, my posture is always easier to maintain. Improved posture is just one of the benefits of drinking water for me.

Continue reading Health Benefits of Proper Hydration

Bad posture takes work to fix. It also takes awareness, time, and patience.

Many people struggle with bad posture. It’s not an easy thing to figure out. Especially with long hours spent sitting, working on screens, or using mobile devices.

The effects of bad posture often become noticeable through back pain, tight muscles, and reduced mobility.

Fixing my posture took a lot of time. So, I’m going to talk about how long it took for my correction timeline (and how I got there).

Continue reading How Long Does it Take to Fix Bad Posture?

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a painful condition where a nerve in the wrist gets compressed. I suffered through this wrist pain for years. I thought it was just a part of my life going forward. If I wanted to have an office-based career where I worked on a computer, I’d have carpal tunnel syndrome from typing, indefinitely.

But in my experience, the theory that wrist pain comes from the act of typing is a misconception. I had carpal tunnel syndrome from using an old-school, tall, bulky keyboard and mouse. I had to extend my wrists to lift my hands onto my tall keyboard and mouse. Holding this vulnerable wrist position for 8 hours a day is why the nerve in my wrist was compressed. It actually didn’t have anything to do with how much I was typing. Instead, it was the repetitive strain and overuse of constantly extending my wrists.

This article will explain how I prevent wrist pain by typing correctly. It will also talk about ergonomic tools to reduce wrist pain. Finally, it will talk about how I strengthen my wrists away from my desk, which is also a method of wrist pain relief for computer users.

Continue reading Tools to Reduce Wrist Pain from Computer Use

I’m not of fan of sitting on my knees. I just don’t see how it can be good for me.

Especially considering I played catcher in baseball during my teenage years. Which required me to spend A LOT of time in the squatted position. Even back then when I was in the game, I never rested on my knees. It just didn’t feel good to me.

I know it’s pretty common for some people to sit on their knees. Especially while working on something that requires them to be low to the ground. Or playing with the kids on the floor.

I’m not speaking for them in this article. I’m just speaking for myself, through my experience of being an athlete who has a full-time job working on a computer.

Most people don’t think about knee pain after sitting. Or, its long-term impact on joint health, circulation, and posture.

So today, I’m dedicating this post to talk about whether or not sitting on your knees is bad.

Continue reading Is Sitting on Your Knees Bad?

I want my computer workstation to be an asset that promotes good posture as soon as I sit (or stand).

Not a liability that creates posture mistakes immediately.

The key to preventing most of my computer posture problems lies in 3 simple ergonomic adjustments. They apply regardless if I’m working at a sitting or standing workstation.

This article will talk about those proper computer ergonomics.

Continue reading Proper Computer Ergonomics

Headaches are the worst. I used to get them weekly. I thought they were migraine attacks. But it turns out, they were really bad tension headaches. And they were awful.

This was before I learned how to improve posture while sitting at computer.

I blamed my headaches on dehydration mainly. Then stress and lack of sleep. And they were all variables. But I had no idea that holding my poor posture (for long periods) was contributing heavily to my head pain.

Bad posture doesn’t just affect how you look. It can put continuous strain on your neck, shoulder, and upper back. This triggered my posture-related headaches.

I’m dedicating this post to talk about how bad posture used to cause my headaches.

Continue reading Can Bad Posture Cause Headaches?

Exercise has provided me with incredible benefits. It improves my strength, my breathing, and my computer posture. All of these are great for keeping me in shape.

My goals during exercise are pretty simple. Do body weight exercises and/or lift weights. For the last 15 minutes of my workout, I make it higher intensity. I don’t take any breaks in between sets. This helps to increase my breathing rate. This portion of the workout may not seem like a long one. But when you are constantly moving the whole time, it gets difficult and challenging quickly.

There are back exercises that can help relieve back pain, strengthen the back muscles, alleviate stiffness, and improve mobility.

There are also certain exercises that are not good for people with lower back pain. Triggering the wrong muscles, as well as straining the joints and ligaments, can worsen the lower back pain. Since we sit at a computer for long periods of time, we are already very likely to suffer from back pain.

So today, I’m sharing a roundup of back exercises that people with lower back pain should avoid. My articles are not medical advice. They are based on my personal experience and my opinions. Do your research. Make good decisions. And be the best advocate possible for your own healthcare.

Continue reading Back Exercises to Avoid with Lower Back Pain

Most people don’t realize how much time they spend looking down at a phone, or at their computer monitor, when in a seated position. I used to be one of these people.

These habits put extra strain on my neck and shoulders which led to poor posture, discomfort, headaches, and long-term alignment issues. It also lead to excessive muscle tension, chronic pain, and joint dysfunction.

Doing targeted neck posture exercises (both stretching and strengthening) helped me correct these issues and regain good posture.

In this article, I’m sharing a round up of neck posture exercises that helped me, which you can add to your routines.

Continue reading 10 Neck Posture Exercises

Stooped posture caused me excessive muscle tension. This tension led to chronic pain and joint dysfunction.

It didn’t matter if I would sit or stand, stooped posture stuck with me for years. It’s not necessarily the position my torso was in, it was the act of placing my hands on something in front of me (keyboard and mouse), then leaving them there for long periods of time.

Stooped posture is very common among office workers who sit at a computer for long periods of time.

It often develops gradually, due to long hours of sitting, poor ergonomics, back muscle weakness, or aging.

Many people do not realize they have developed a stooped posture until they begin experiencing neck pain, back discomfort, or limited mobility.

I’m dedicating this post to talk about what stooped posture is, and what someone can do to fix it, or even avoid it altogether.

Continue reading Stooped Posture

I want my ergonomic workstation to be an asset that promotes good sitting posture the second I sit in my office chair. I need monitor height, elbow height, knee angle, and foot position to be correct immediately.

So, I shouldn’t have to move my body into a good computer posture position after I sit. This kind of workstation would be a liability that causes computer-related injuries. Good sitting posture should happen more naturally, as soon as I sit down. This requires a computer desk setup that’s custom fit for each office worker.

Correct sitting posture for office workers can vary for different people. There’s no single, correct way for everyone to sit at a computer. Desk workers are different heights, arm lengths, leg lengths, torso lengths, etc.

I write about my experience with making poor computer posture mistakes in the past. I also write about how I fixed those mistakes, in an effort to heal my computer-related pain, and prevent future computer injuries.

Continue reading How to Improve Sitting Posture

Peer pressure had a negative effect on me many times.

It only had a positive, powerful effect on me once. But once is all it took.

At the end of March 2026, I’ll be 3 years alcohol-free.

It was never an addiction problem for me. It was more of an alignment thing. Or mis-alignment, I should say.

3 Years Alcohol-Free: The Power of Peer Pressure

In 30 years of drinking, I never took a sip of alcohol that tasted good.

Alcohol was always a means to get a result:

• To meet someone.
• To fit in.
• To make someone else happy.
• Or just to avoid the awkward question, “Why aren’t you having fun?”

Continue reading 3 Years Alcohol-Free: The Power of Peer Pressure

Having posture problems used to be complex for me. But I was surprised at how simple it was to make healthy changes to my ergonomic habits. Finding corrective exercises was easy, but practicing them consistently was the hard part for me.

Forward head posture is one of the most common poor posture problems today. Especially for those of us who work on a computer 8 hours a day.

Forward head posture fhp places extra strain on the neck and upper spine, which causes a number of uncomfortable and painful symptoms.

In this post, I’m sharing a guide on how to effectively and safely fix forward head posture that you can follow (and learn from my personal experience).

Continue reading How to Fix Forward Head Posture

Standing workstations allow office workers to use a computer comfortably, while in a physically active position.

Commonly referred to as standing desks, or sit stand desks, they allow us to use repetitive strain to our advantage, correcting bad habits that sitting has caused.

Sitting in an office chair for long periods of time makes us dominant on the posterior (back) side of our lower body.

Our hamstrings and gluteus muscles are overused and they shorten over time. Conversely, this causes the anterior (front) side of our lower body to become overextended.

Our quadriceps lengthen and get weaker from sitting for extended periods of time.

Sitting causes both posterior and anterior leg muscles to get weaker and more deactivated. Posterior tissues shorten, while anterior tissues lengthen. This causes a lot of muscle imbalance and confusion in the legs, as well as increased risk of injury during sports and exercise.

Continue reading Benefits of Standing Desk

Computer posture problems are prevalent nowadays. Especially with the excessive amount of external factors working against us. In my case, these factors included high-stress jobs, working under fake lights, eating ultra processed foods, and drinking water loaded with chemicals (just to name a few). All these affected my posture in a negative way.

More people are working at their desks with their hands constantly on a keyboard and mouse. On top of that, add looking down at a phone for hours a day (for more info, check out the article I wrote on tech neck prevention).

All of the above variables lead to rounded shoulders, forward head posture, and upper back pain. These types of posture mistakes are very common among computer users.

In this post, I’m going to talk about whether or not posture correctors really work.

Continue reading Do Posture Correctors Work?

Back pain is a serious issue for those of us who work on a computer for long periods of time. I used to suffer from back pain chronically when I sat at a computer 40 hours per week.

The back is a very complex muscle group. There are a lot of variables to consider. When the spine is not in a neutral position, the compression forces repetitive strain and overuse injuries much quicker than if we had good posture.

This article will talk about the pros and cons of sit-ups. It’ll also cover some substitute ab exercises I do when I have lower back pain.

Are Sit Ups Bad For Lower Back Pain

It’s also important to be careful in choosing the activities you do. After a long day of sitting, it might be a bad idea to do ab workouts that build core strength. The core muscles definitely need to be strengthened, but I usually did more harm than good when I did core exercises after sitting at a computer all day. Although it may not feel like it, my core muscles work all day long to support my torso at a computer. Working on a computer for long periods of time is an endurance event, regardless if we are sitting or standing. Going straight to a gym after work to do sit up repetition wasn’t the ideal balance for me. I always tried to do my core exercises on days that I wasn’t doing any work on a computer.

Why Is Corrective Exercise Important

As I’ve gotten into my mid-forties, I’ve noticed the lack of muscle growth and activation I was used to when I was younger. That elusive six pack is much harder to achieve as I’ve gotten older. The more I use my core muscles to support my computer posture for long periods of time, the more my abdominal muscles get tighter, weaker, and more deactivated. But these are just more reasons and more motivation to focus on my physical fitness. A huge variable of that is training my abdominal muscles effectively. Improving my core strength hasn’t been an easy task for me. Certain body movements and core exercises have made my back pain worse, sometimes including sit ups and crunches. So today, I’m dedicating this post on how sit ups can affect lower back pain.

Continue reading Are Sit Ups Bad for Lower Back Pain?

Before I fixed my computer posture in 2011, lower back pain took a beating on my quality of life.

My lower back was like the middle of a rope during a tug-of-war. But it wasn’t 2 human teams competing against each other.

Instead, it was my tight upper back and shoulders on one team. The other team was my tight hamstrings and deactivated glutes. And my lower back was being pulled apart, causing hyperextension of multiple muscles.

Heat therapy has helped me with certain types of lower back pain. But its effectiveness depends on the cause of the pain. Improper use can worsen some conditions.

I’m dedicating this post to talk about whether or not heating pads are good for lower back pain (in my experience). Nothing in this article is medical advice. I simply talk about my own personal experience. Do your research. Make good decisions. Talk to a doctor. But be the best advocate for your own healthcare.

Continue reading Is A Heating Pad Good For Lower Back Pain

Chronic back pain is such a conundrum for me. Especially with my history of poor posture at a computer. It’s never an easy fix.

But I’ve learned to take certain ergonomic steps that prevent working in an awkward position.

My back pain isn’t always caused by spinal damage. It’s often caused by muscular tension and imbalance.

Because sitting for long hours can lead to tight muscles, which definitely contributed to my back pain.

This post will to talk about how stiff and tight muscles resulted in back pain. It’ll also talk about how I relieve back pain from stiff and tight muscles.

Continue reading How Can Stiff And Tight Muscles Result In Back Pain

The psoas muscle is very complex. It doesn’t work like a typical muscle. The psoas muscle attaches to multiple vertebrae in the lumbar spine. A typical muscle has a tendon on each end that connects it to a bone. The general psoas muscle is made up of a psoas major and a psoas minor. We have one of these on each side of our spine.

At its highest point, the psoas muscle begins at the lumbar vertebrae. It runs downward through the area of the hip flexors. At its lowest point, the the psoas attaches to a tendon on the back side of our upper leg, which also adds to the complexity of it. The tendons of the psoas all connect in the posterior (back) side of the body. However, the psoas muscle uniquely travels through the anterior (front) side of the body.

How To Sit With Psoas Pain

When the psoas contracts, it allows us to rotate the hip externally. It also gives the ability to life your leg, as well as move it laterally. The psoas muscle is a major force that helps the spine and legs move together effectively. It’s a major force when it comes to any full body movement like running and squatting.

It also provides a large amount of stability that helps us keep our spine and torso upright. This is a crucial variable required to sit for long periods of time with good computer posture. The psoas muscle is one of the few muscle groups that connects our upper body to our lower body. Sitting can affect the psoas muscle because it is very prone to overuse. The average computer worker is at a desk 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, 2000 hours a year. That’s a massive amount of repetitive strain, regardless if we are sitting with good or poor computer posture. When we sit for long periods of time, it can cause a tight psoas.

Continue reading How to Sit with Psoas Pain