Today’s early a.m. routine as a computer posture maniac 👨🏻‍💻
→ I got out of my temperature-controlled bed.
I kept it at 72° F all night, so I didn’t wake up with night sweats mid-sleep.
→ I kept on the mouth tape I used while sleeping.
This promotes nasal-breathing all night instead of mouth-breathing.
→ I immediately jumped in my 55° F cool plunge.
I filled it up with water and an ice block the night before. Secret time: It wasn’t fancy. I just used my bath tub.
I focused on breathing deep, slow, and through my nose. Both inhale and exhale. I stayed in for 2 minutes.
→ Soon as I got out of the water, I set the temperature on my bed for 109° F and jumped back in bed for 10 minutes.
I continued taking deep breaths slowly, through my nose on both the inhale and exhale.
This is the easiest way for me to do a hot/cold contrast. Because it’ll be a couple hours before I can get to the gym to use the dry sauna. I feel good after the cool plunge, but I feel even better after the heated 10 minutes of breathwork.
→ I took my mouth tape off.
→ I poured a glass of water (filtered by reverse osmosis). I added 1/3 scoop of AG1 (not paid promotion). Mixed it up and drank it.
I used to take a full serving of AG1. And it helped a ton for improving my gut health. But now that my gut health is great, I feel good with 1/3 serving these days.
→ Then, I wrote this LinkedIn post about my early a.m. routine.
→ Finally, I’ll copy it to my Medium blog, my website blog, then to my Computer Posture Newsletter (email).
I’m going to start posting more about my daily process of computer ergonomics. 👨🏻‍💻
Sign up for my 👉 Computer Posture Newsletter 👉 if you’re an athletic office worker who wants to decrease computer-related pain and increase work productivity.
Computer ergonomics doesn’t just happen while we’re at work. It happens in the kitchen, in the gym, and in the bedroom.
My Morning Routine for Better Computer Posture: Cold Plunge, Mouth Tape, and 10-Minute Heat Therapy
If you’d like to do a deeper dive about these habits of mine, read below…
Cool plunge
I used the word “cool” instead of “cold” for a reason. I know a lot of people brag about how cold they get their water temperature, in the 40°s F, even into the 30°s F. But that’s just not for me right now.
As a long time computer user, batting repetitive strain and stress in my muscles will always be a continuous process for me. If I jump into some cold *ss water, that’ll just make my muscles tighten up too much. It’ll be more of a liability than an asset to my computer posture (in my experience).
I’m not saying I won’t drop the temperature down eventually. But right now, mid 50°s F is just right for me. I want to breathe slow and deep so my muscles can relax. I don’t want water so cold that I hyperventilate, breathing short, shallow, fast breaths.
Mouth tape for sleeping
This has given me so many health benefits. It literally changed me from being a chronic mouth breather, to someone who breathes through my nose most of the time. I sleep better, breathe better, and my oral posture is much better.
AG1 for better gut health
I stumbled across AG1 years ago when I was desperately trying to improve my gut health. I had already tried increasing fiber with foods in my diet. I tried fiber pills. I tried certain probiotics and prebiotics. None of that worked at all. Zero improvement. But then…
→ I stopped eating fast food 100%. I started cooking all my meals at home. Clean grass-fed protein and organic carbs, cooked in healthy animal fats. This improved my gut health about 50%.
→ I started taking a full serving of AG1 daily. This improved my gut health to about 80 or 90%.
→ I started sleeping on grounding sheet and pillowcase from Amazon (not paid promo). This reduced inflammation in my body that got me that last 10 to 20% improvement I needed in my gut health.
These 3 healthy habits allow me to have well-formed bowel movements more than 90% of the time now.
I wrote an article about my experience. It’s titled Irritable Bowel Syndrome: How I Fixed my IBS.
If you like this article, my Computer Posture Newsletter should be very helpful for you.
P.S. It’s always free. And you can unsubscribe anytime. Click here to learn more.
Thanks for your interest in computer posture.
Todd Bowen — Computer Posture Correction and Pain-Free Ergonomics: For Office Workers Who Want to Increase Work Productivity