Software Development Is Bad For Your Health (And What You Can Do About It)
Slouched Sitting Posture
If you’re like most computer programmers, this is probably what you look like for a large portion of the day, hunched over your desk at a computer for hours on end. It sucks. I know because I’ve been there.
The head is forward (1), shoulders are slouched (2), back is arched (3) and your hips form an angle of less than 90 degrees (4). The evidence is overwhelming that sitting this way is really bad for you. Slouching can cause problems with headaches and jaw pain, gastrointestinal problems, give you a beer gut, even cause you to perform poorly at your job and wreak havoc on your perceived confidence. In order to avoid these problems, a number of experts advise improving your sitting posture.
Proper Sitting Posture
This what the textbook “correct” sitting posture looks like. The monitor is positioned at or just below eye level so that the head is straight (1). The shoulders are back and the back is slightly arched (2). The elbows form a 90-degree angle (3) so that the forearms are level.
It’s true that sitting properly may improve your overall posture, but it’s only part of the story. For me, the improvement was marginal at best. I still walked around with slouched shoulders and with my head forward. About a year ago, I made a concerted effort to change that.
The Beginning
I’ve always struggled with posture. It doesn’t help that I’m tall and lanky, which seems to exacerbate the issue. So, last April, when I was offered a free personal training session as part of my new gym membership, I took it as an opportunity to learn more about posture and training.
At the first session, the trainer puts you through a series of exercises to try and determine overall fitness and if there might be any areas which need improvement. Even though I would consider myself a relatively fit individual, I had trouble with exercises focusing on the abs and glutes. Why?
The Kinetic Chain
In physical therapy, there is a concept known as a kinetic chain. Essentially, the idea is that no joint can be evaluated in isolation. The body tends to compensate for injuries or muscle imbalances in one area by propagating the imbalance to other muscles and joints. An imbalance in the hip will propagate to the back and shoulders, for instance.
Kinetic Chain Ripple Effect
In my case, I believe I developed a muscle imbalance in the hip resulting from hours sitting at a computer. When you are sitting, your abdominal muscles are not being engaged. Furthermore, the hip flexor muscles are contracted which can shorten them over time.
With shortened hip flexors and weak abs and glues, the result is an excessive anterior pelvic tilt, meaning that the hips are excessively tilted forward. Some amount of anterior tilt is normal, and the back naturally has some degree of arch, between 4-7 degrees in men and about 7-10 degrees in women. Mine was closer to 15 degrees. The anterior pelvic tilt propagates up the kinetic chain, resulting an excessive back arch. The excessive back arch means that the shoulders and head must come forward to compensate.
Anterior Pelvic Tilt
Regardless of whether you are sitting with proper posture or slouching, you will still run into these problems. Of course, sitting properly will help, but it may not be a solution in itself – at least, it wasn’t enough for me.
My Results
The solution for an anterior pelvic tilt is actually fairly straightforward in theory – strengthen the abs and glutes and stretch the opposing muscles, the erector spinae and hip flexors. In practice, it’s a little more complicated.
I continued to do roughly the same workout routine I’ve done for years, but I modified it to focus on those goals. I added planks and hip abductor exercises to my weight training routine. I added stretches for the erector spinae and hip flexors. I also started doing pull ups with a reverse grip so as to focus on the deltoids (delts) to try to pull my shoulders back.
I also recently switched to a standing desk, which appears to be a trend among developers these days. I definitely like my standing desk, but I don’t believe it is a solution in itself. In fact, a standing desk can actually cause injury for individuals that have been sitting for years if the switch is abrupt. Standing tends to put more stress on the lower back if you previously had problems with weak abs or glutes. When I first switched, I definitely felt pain in my back, so I dialed it back and gave my body time to adjust.
It’s been almost a year since I decided to focus explicitly on posture. My posture has improved dramatically, though it still isn’t quite where I’d like it to be. In other areas, however, I’ve noticed very clear benefits. Since my shoulders are farther back, I’ve noticed that I have much greater mobility on exercises like the bench press. It’s easier for me to lift things off of the ground and my butt actually has some curvature to it, which I’m told might help with the ladies, though I can’t provide any scientific data to support that assertion. A problem I had previously with shoulder impingement is essentially gone. I can stand for longer periods of time without feeling fatigue. So, in short, I am making progress.
Posture is probably something I will struggle with for the foreseeable future. However, I have found ways to improve my posture gradually. The bottom line is that our profession is inherently unnatural in that it requires a great deal of time to be spent in a stationary position. To the extent that we can break up that pattern by taking breaks, stretching, working out and remaining mobile, we can be better, healthier, longer-living. more productive and sane developers.
=========================================================以下為中文翻譯，來自網絡轉載===================================================================
程式設計是一種身體健康十分有害的工作
作者：安卓百曉生釋出于：03月28日 11:40通路（869）評論（2）
典型坐姿
如果你像大多數程式員一樣，那很可能這(上圖)就是你一天工作中大部分時間裡身體保持的樣子，耷肩勾背持續數小時趴在電腦桌前。這很不舒服。我知道，因為我也是這樣。
頭向前傾(1)，耷拉着肩膀(2)，背弓着(3)，上身和屁股的角度小于90度(4)。大量資料證明，這樣坐着會實實在在的損害你的健康。這種姿勢會引起頭痛和頸痛，誘發腸胃病，容易形成啤酒肚，甚至造成你的工作效率低下，嚴重的影響你生活工作中的自信。為了避免這些不良問題，很多專家給出了很多建議來改進你的坐姿。
正确的坐姿
這是教科書上“正确”的坐姿的樣子。顯示器的高度剛好位于你的水準視線的下方，這樣你的頭頸是直的(1)。肩膀向後，背稍微有些弧度(2)。手臂彎曲成90度角(3)，這樣前臂是水準的。
沒錯，這些指導能整體的改善你的坐姿，但這僅是問題的一個方面。對于我來說，這種指導無法起到應有的效果。我仍然在工作中經常勾着背、身體向前趴。大概一年前，我專門做了一番努力來改變這種狀況。
着手
我長期以來一直在跟坐姿做鬥争。我又高又瘦，但這不但沒有幫助我，反而使我的坐姿問題更嚴重。于是，就在去年四月，當我因為成為一個健身俱樂部的新會員而免費獲得了私人教練，我決定把這當成一次機會來學習更多關于坐姿問題，以及如何訓練改正。
在私教的第一學期中，教練通過讓我做一系列的動作來測試和判斷我的整體健康程度，看看我的身體在那些部位需要提高。盡管自認為是一個比較健康的人，我仍然在腹肌和臀肌練習上遇到麻煩。為什麼？
動力學鍊(The Kinetic Chain)
實體療法中有一種概念叫做動力學鍊。簡單的說，這個理論指明我們不能對人體的各個運動部位作互相獨立的看待。當我們的身體的某一部位受到傷害或發育不平衡，系統機能會通過把它向其它部位肌肉和關節擴散來進行補償。例如，臀肌發育不平衡就會擴散到背部和肩膀。
動力學鍊的擴散效應
從我的情況看，我相信，長期數小時的坐在電腦前導緻了我的臀部肌肉的發育不平衡。當我們坐着時，我們的腹肌并沒有參與出力。重要的是，臀肌收縮，長此以往會變短。
變短的臀肌和虛弱的腹肌，這直接導緻了一個過度向前傾的盆骨，這意味着我們的屁股有前屈的傾向。一定程度的前區是正常的，我的背部在自然情況下是有 一定的弧度的，男人大概是4-7度，女人大概是7-10度。我的接近15度。前屈會擴散到動力學鍊上，導緻明顯的背部彎曲。過度彎曲的背意味着你的肩和頭 必須向前彎曲來進行補償。
向前傾斜的盆骨
無論你坐的姿勢十分的正确還是弓着背趴着，你都會遇到這些問題。當然，正确的坐姿能減少這種危害的程度，但這并不是解決問題的辦法——至少，這些對我是不夠的。
我的成果
避免盆骨前傾的辦法在理論上相當的直接——強化腹肌和臀肌，舒展相對的肌肉——背部肌肉和臀屈肌。實際操作中，這有點複雜。
我還是像往常一樣做着相同的鍛煉，但我修改了一些，着重鍛煉上面說的幾處。我增加了提重和臀外展肌的鍛煉。增加了豎脊肌和臀屈肌的舒展鍛煉。我還開始做反抓引體向上，這主要針對三角肌，努力扳回我的肩膀。
我最近還開始嘗試使用立式辦公桌，這種桌子最近在程式員中有流行的趨勢。我無疑很喜歡我的立式電腦桌。但我不認為這是我的問題的解決方案。事實上， 如果經過了這麼多年坐着辦公，你一旦突然站着辦公，這極有可能會引起傷痛。如果你之前腹肌和臀肌很弱，站着辦公實際上對你的下腰增加了更大的壓力。當我第 一次做這樣的改變時，我明顯的感覺到了腰痛，于是我間斷的實施，讓我的身體慢慢的适應。
從決定針對性的糾正坐姿開始，距今已有1年。我的身體姿勢已經發生了巨大的變化——盡管還沒有達到我希望的标準。然而，在很多方面，我明顯感覺到了 好處。因為我的肩膀更向後張，我發現在做一些像仰卧舉重運動時我比以前更靈活了。從地上舉起東西也變得更容易了，我的屁股事實上有了一些弧度來适應這個動 作，有人說這種變化在女人身上是很有好處的，但我沒有任何科學資料來證明這一點。我以前經常出現的肩部疼痛。現在基本消失了。我現在能站立更久的時間而不 感到疲倦。是以，總之，我健康了很多。
身體姿勢上的問題在可預見的将來仍将是我繼續抗争的目标。但我已經找到了逐漸改善我的姿勢的方法。要領是，我們的這種職業是固有的非自然的，它需要 我們大部分時間裡處于靜止位置。在某種程度上我們可以通過多次休息，舒展身體，戶外運動，經常移動來打破這種模式，讓我們狀态更好，更健康，更長壽。還有 更高的工作效率和更清晰的開發程式的大腦。
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原文連結：https://blog.csdn.net/weixin_33963594/article/details/92538812