Your Health

fitness+wellbeing

5 movements to improve your posture while sitting Is your sitting posture causing you pain? The team from Vitruvian Health share their secrets to avoiding the discomfort that can come from day-to-day sitting. As nurses and midwives, we never really think about how to sit correctly. We are often so busy working and helping others that we forget about helping ourselves. Just like breathing, sitting is quite “normal”. However, when we are tired or have been sitting for lengthy periods of time, our posture can deteriorate. The last thing you want to think about at the end of a double shift, is bracing your abs and sitting up straight! Poor posture leads to back, hip, neck or shoulder pain. That is why we have created this set of movements and drills to help engage your body so that you can sit up straighter, for longer. All it takes is five minutes!

• Balance on one leg with your knee at 90 degrees. Hold for 30 seconds. Now change to the other leg and hold for 30 seconds (try this one while brushing your teeth, like Kate!).

• Lie on your back and do three sets of 10 glute bridges. • Still lying on your back, hug your knees to your chest to lengthen through the lower back.

• Sitting on a chair, push your hands down and lift one knee to your chest and hold for five seconds. Repeat this five times before changing to the other knee. • Standing tall, lift your hands above your head, reaching towards the sky.

Breathe into your ribs and lengthen through your back. Turn your toes inwards and flex your quads as hard as you can. Hold for 45 seconds.

You can follow this workout on Vitruvian Health’s Instagram channel.