Use your "sit bones"

We sit for the majority of our day. We sit in a desk. We sit in our car. We sit at the table. We sit on our couch. Sit, sit, sit! It takes more muscles to sit with correct posture, and since the body always takes the path of least resistance, we tend to sit in a way that uses less muscles, and more pressure on bones...

Our bodies weren't made to sit for as long as we do but since our bodies are so amazing, they adapt to our habitual movements (or lack thereof - we burn 15% less calories per hour sitting vs. standing).

When we sit on a regular basis, our muscles begin to develop in that posture (imagine the changes in your body from standing to sitting...what areas of your body do you think are affected)? When we sit in poor posture, our hip flexors shorten, hamstrings get tight, chest muscles get tight from reaching towards our keyboards, and we are usually sitting on our tailbone, not our "sit bones."

The bad thing about all of this poor posture is that it creates aches and pains all over our bodies! We get low back pain because of the tight muscles around it, we get tension in our traps near our neck, we constantly sit on some major nerves that control our legs so blood flow slows down, and muscle communication/activation begins to get "pinched off."

The good thing is we don't have to live with pain forever...it's not a part of getting old, it's not a part of gaining weight, it's a part of poor posture!

Here are a few stretches you can do to help stretch the tight muscles and begin to get rid of chronic pain:

The best thing we can so is called "Self-Myofacial Release" or "Foam Rolling." You can use a foam roll (pictured below) or sit on something like a tennis ball, golf ball, medicine ball, etc etc...

Foam rolling gets out the "knots" that develop deep in you hip complex and helps get rid of pain by increasing blood flow and communication between your nerves and muscles!