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The Basics

1. Lie face-down, on the floor, with your feet together
2. Push your torso up on your elbows, positioning your elbows directly underneath (or slightly in front of) your shoulders.
3. Clasp your hands together, forming an inverted V (with your hands and forearms) beneath your chest.
4. Tuck your toes under, in a similar manner.
5. Brace your arms and shoulders for the weight of your body.

Doing The Exercise

1. Lock your knees, and extend your hips – imagine driving your toes into the ground. Ideally, you’ll be hovering over the ground with your weight distributed between your forearms and toes.
2. Relax your chest and slide your shoulders into a locked position. This will likely lower your torso an inch or two closer to the ground. Your body will now be in a straight line, parallel to the ground. Squeeze your glutes! It may also be helpful to hyperextend your lower back a little bit to maximally engage your core.
3. Hold this position for as long as you comfortable can, probably 20-60 seconds if this is new to you. Try to feel the burn in your core, rather than on your forearms or toes. Repeat this exercise a few times, and perform it daily or every other day, as per your dedication and desired intensity.

Pointers and Variations

1. For beginners: To make this exercise easier, instead of holding your body in a straight line, allow your pelvis to rise 6-12 inches above the rest of your body to form an inverted V shape when performing the exercise.
2. For experienced practitioners: Try using one foot, placing your unplanted foot atop the planted one. Alternate feet between reps.
3. Do the this exercise on carpet or a yoga mat. Your elbows will thank you.

An Overview of the Plank

As mentioned elsewhere on Pardon My Posture, it’s pretty likely that a combination of stretching, strengthening, and myofascial release will fix almost all problems related to musculoskeletal dysfunction. Planking is a solid exercise in your toolkit that fixes a lot of back related issues.

To oversimplify things, peoples’ “bad back” issues can be attributed to either a) extension deficient or b) flexion deficient. Back extension is the motioning of straightening your back (like standing up) and back flexion is the motion of curling your back up (like doing crunches). So for the most part, a lot of people’s back problems are as simple as needing to strengthen muscles in their anterior chain (muscles in the front of the body), such as the muscles that flex their back backward:

• The abs (rectus abdominus, transversus abdominus, and external obliques)
• The hip flexors (iliacus, psoas, tensor fasciae latae, rectus femoris)
• Quadriceps
• Shin (tibialis anterior)

Or they need to strengthen the muscles in their posterior chain (the muscles in the back of their body) that extend their back

• Lower back (erector spinae)
• Butt (gluteus maximus)
• Hamstrings
• Calves

The front plank exercise strengthens nearly all the muscles in your anterior musculoskeletal chain. Basically, it’s extremely beneficial for anyone with back problems, particularly those with flexion issues. This is probably less than half of the people who have been dealing with back problems however, as it’s more likely that people with back problems will really benefit from doing posterior chain exercises. Now the question is – how do you tell which boat you’re on, flexion deficient or extension deficient. Think about what makes your back hurt. For example, if sitting for half an hour on the floor in Indian style gives issues, you’re probably extension deficient. Flexion hurts, sitting hurts. Show your body some love with extension exercises. It probably hurts when you do crunches, but loves back extension exercises.

If you don’t know which boat you’re on, don’t worry. Doing the front plank exercise can’t really hurt you. Even though the front plant exercise technically strengthens the anterior musculoskeletal chain, it does not put your back through flexion. It’s an isometric exercise, meaning that there is no motion involved. For example, when you flex your bicep to show off those guns, you’re doing an isometric exercise because your arm doesn’t move even though your muscle is working.

The front plank exercise was developed a few decades ago as an alternative to the crunch, and is still highly regarded today for fixing hip or back dysfunction. It requires the transversus abdominis and the external obliques to contract strongly, which doesn’t happen in a crunch or situp. Frankly, the front plank is likely the best transverse abdominis exerciisie one can do besides supine “flutter kicks” and “wood choppers”. It also requires the hip flexors to contract very strongly. Most people suffer from posterior pelvic tilt, which is worsened (or caused) by weak hip flexors and transversus abdominus muscles – planks help fix this.

TLDR: Do planks because they’re good for your lower back, pelvis, and hips. They also help keep your waistline slim because they engage the transversus abdominus and external obliques.

All the exercises posted on PardonMyPosture.com are there to help fix some sort of musculoskeletal issue in your body, and it’s important to pick the right exercise for your problem. Similar to using the right tool for the job. It’d be great if you’ve visited some sort of healthcare professional who’s told you what muscles you need to strengthen, or even better if you’ve done research and learned/pinpointed these things yourself. Using that knowledge, you can choose some of the exercises here to perform and solve your problem.

If, for example, you have lower back pain, your physical therapist (or your inner voice) might have said to strengthen your gluteals and spinal erectors. You’d be able to find appropriate exercises here, like “bird dogs”, “supermans”, and “supine bridges” that offer long term relief.

Here’s a (somewhat known) secret for you – physical therapy is not rocket science, and it’s something anybody can learn. Granted, there are some excellent physiotherapists in the world, but most of them just look at the records and prescriptions provided by your doctor and show you some basic exercises. Everybody is usually given the same exercise prescription, for example if one comes in with lower lack pain, and it’s not tailored to the patient’s lifestyle amongst other things.

Even if you haven’t been to a doctor, it’s really possible to fix musculoskeletal dysfunction at home with self directed stretching, strengthening, and myofascial release. Muscles that are commonly weak in the modern desk warrior (perhaps you) who spends more than 12 hours a day sitting on the car seat, couch, or desk are listed below:

Muscle Name	Location	Pain Caused
Triceps	Arms	Elbow
Gluteus Maximus	Butt	Back
Gluteus Medius	Butt	Knee
Vastus Medialis	Legs	Knee
Middle and Lower Trapezius	Mid Back	Shoulder
Obliques	Trunk	Back
Rectus Abdominis	Trunk	Back
Transverse Abdominis	Trunk	Back
Serratus Anterior	Trunk	Shoulder
Rhomboids	Upper Back	Back

Weakness in these muscles, along with tightness and strength in their antagonist muscles (i..e triceps and biceps) tends to translate into chronic pain, reduced range of motion (ROM), and bad posture. Unfortunately, if you’re sitting for more than half the day, in a car seat driving, your couch watching TV, or at a desk on the computer, these weak muscles will always have a predisposition to staying weak. As a result, to keep a normal, pain-free body, you’re going to have to do these exercises routinely for most of your sitting life.

Exercises corresponding to each muscle group are given in the following posts. Check them out, and put in the work.

Many people face musculoskeletal problems (back pain, shoulder pain, etc.), which can be traced back to the fact that they sit down for over 16 hours a day, creating a lifestyle known as a “Desk Jockey”. If you’re sitting at a desk at work, be it on site or at home, sitting some more after working (watching TV, eating dinner, playing video games), the hours add up. Sitting isn’t really bad for your body, and neither is slouching. However, keeping your body locked in one position (either slouching or sitting), and holding this for days, weeks, and years at a time…this leads to serious consequences, especially for those with genetic predisposition to thoracic and musculoskeletal problems.

A primer on muscles

Muscles always connect to two or more bones, and cross over a joint in between. They can be tightened or lengthened on a semi-permanent basis by exercise and stretching, respectively. For example, by exercising your quadriceps, you will, over time, improve the resting muscle tone of the quadriceps, effectively shortening them. A helpful analogy is to think of your muscles like a piece of rope, and the goal is to get the ropes to their ideal length – this is done by exercise to shorten/tighten and stretching to lengthen/loosen

Your muscles adapt

Keeping your body locked in one position really complicates things because your muscles and ligaments adapt over time to the conditions they are placed in. For example, if you slouch all day in front of a computer, the thoracic portion of your deep back (erector spinae) muscles will lengthen and become weak because they are a) constantly being stretched a little bit (and stretch the posterior ligaments as a byproduct) and b) they’re not being exercised.

Here’s what is happening when you are sitting at a computer

There is a difference between sitting down vs. slouching vs. sitting down at a computer. But it’s key to understand that sitting down, even in good posture, is going to have some negative negative effects although it is “less-bad” than slouching or sitting in front of a computer. Worst case scenario is slouching in front of a computer all day, the biomechanics of which are described below.

1. Your pelvis is tilted posteriorly to a significant degree. This can be visualized as the end range-of-motion if you were trying to hump something while standing.

2) Your lower back is in flexion, meaning your spine is curved backwards like the left parenthesis ( to a high degree.

3) Your upper back is in flexion, meaning it’s bent forward and hunched to a high degree.

4) Your shoulders are vertically positioned over your thighs, instead of over your pelvis.

5) Your head is positioned even further out over your thighs than your shoulders.

6) Your forearms are internally rotated, creating an inward facing palm near the maximum of the end range-of-motion.

7) Your ilacus and psoas are stretched significantly.

Over time, your body will adapt to all of the positioning noted above – everybody will react a bit differently, but the following points describe the typical state of affairs.

1) Posterior pelvic tilt will put your hamstrings in a shortened position, and can contribute to chronically tight hamstrings.

2) The excessive lumbar flexion reduces the natural inward curvature of your lower back, giving you a “flat” lower back. This stiffness places a lot of extra stress on the local musculature, resulting in chronic back main near the middle of your back, and forced posterior pelvic tilt when standing.

3) The excessive forward bending of your upper back results in your body adopting this flexion posture over time. This means that you will have excessive kyphosis when standing. Remember Quasimodo? This also becomes an issue if you read books a lot, because your back is hunched to a greater degree than when you sit at a PC. Book stands help, get one already. Excessive kyphosis brings a big list of problems and injury predispositions, such as shoulder impingement and chronic headaches (alongside a forward-head posture).

4) Your shoulders aren’t squarely over your pelvis. This is a position that is contributed to, and worsened by the fact that you’ve had a kyphotic posture from slouching for years, bringing a bunch of other problems. In this position, your shoulders naturally ride high on your thorax causing 1) a very tightened/shortened upper trapezius muscles which are positioned so that they are activated whenever you move your arms/hands around, and 2) your levator scapulae is in a continuously lengthened position and overstretched as a result. The results of this are that 1) your upper trapezius becomes very strong but extremely tight (getting it massaged feels amazing) and 2) your levator scapulae become weak and overlengthened (getting it massaged also feels amazing).

5) Your iliacus and psoas (jointly referred to as the iliopsoas muscle) are going to become weak from constantly being in a relaxed position. Your flat lower back and/or natural tendency to posterior pelvic tilt are going to impact your standing posture as a result, because your knees and pelvis are going to be positioned in front of your ankles (instead of directly over them) when viewed from the side, and your upper body compensates by leaning backwards. This new posture puts your iliopsoas muscle into an overstretched/relaxed state in the same manner that sitting down does.

How do I fix this?

This is a lot of information. Lots of generalizations were made about how a typical human body reacts to a seated lifestyle. Don’t get stressed, you’re not the typical person. You could be old, you could be young, you could be an athlete, you could be fat, you could have arthritis – you could be anyone. Before you start googling “posterior pelvic tilt” , “excessive kyphosis”, and “flat back”, it’s important for you to know if you actually have these problems. Would you find relief in knowing that some people’s bodies react in exactly the opposite way to what was described above, and that doing corrective exercises and stretches for the conditions I described above could actually make your problems worse? The last thing we need is for someone to go down a random path from another site and go hurt themselves

I will write an article on how to fix each one of the problems noted. In the meantime, consider reading the Pardon My Posture article on back massagers. To give a brief preview, the article involves analyzing your body, including posture, with a digital camera’s help. For now, lie down on your back (supine) on a hardwood floor, relax, and get a friend to try and fit their fingers under your lower back. If your friend can’t get anything under there you may have reduced lordosis. If your friend can roll a softball under there, well, then you have different problems.

Application

I think people run into problems when they try to exercise because they assume their body is normal and should function normally. Instead, they should be viewing their body through a different lens – their body is good at sitting, and has adapted to sitting over time. This makes it predisposed to specific injuries and problems. A gym routine or rehab plan needs to be designed with this framework in mind, since most everyone these days spends a lot of time sitting. Don’t assume things are normal at first.

If you’re an athlete, don’t assume this article doesn’t apply to you and your sport. I.e, as a cyclist or rower, you put your body in extreme spinal flexion and posterior pelvic tilt more than a desk jockey does, for some long periods of time. If you’re a runner, or soccer player (with a daytime desk job), consider what excessive kyphosis does for your gait. It puts more weight over your toes as you run, potentially causing knee pain amongst some other annoying problems.

TLDR

Odds are, your sedentary lifestyle is giving you some musculuskeletal (and/or digestive and mental health) issues. Take action to learn what’s going on with your body, and what the ideal should be. Get notifications on upcoming posts when you sign up with your email. Let’s get healthier together.

Additional Reading

To be added

Sources

The Floota website (now defunct)

Neanderthal No More (Parts 1-5) on T-Nation by Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson

Common Postural Deficiencies @ exrx.net

Heal That Hunchback on T-Nation by Mike Robertson

Conquering Enemies of the Spine on T-Nation by Michael Stare and Cassandra Forsythe