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.
=========================================================以下为中文翻译，来自网络转载===================================================================
编程是一种身体健康十分有害的工作
作者：安卓百晓生发布于：03月28日 11:40访问（869）评论（2）
典型坐姿
如果你像大多数程序员一样，那很可能这(上图)就是你一天工作中大部分时间里身体保持的样子，耷肩勾背持续数小时趴在电脑桌前。这很不舒服。我知道，因为我也是这样。
头向前倾(1)，耷拉着肩膀(2)，背弓着(3)，上身和屁股的角度小于90度(4)。大量数据证明，这样坐着会实实在在的损害你的健康。这种姿势会引起头痛和颈痛，诱发肠胃病，容易形成啤酒肚，甚至造成你的工作效率低下，严重的影响你生活工作中的自信。为了避免这些不良问题，很多专家给出了很多建议来改进你的坐姿。
正确的坐姿
这是教科书上“正确”的坐姿的样子。显示器的高度刚好位于你的水平视线的下方，这样你的头颈是直的(1)。肩膀向后，背稍微有些弧度(2)。手臂弯曲成90度角(3)，这样前臂是水平的。
没错，这些指导能整体的改善你的坐姿，但这仅是问题的一个方面。对于我来说，这种指导无法起到应有的效果。我仍然在工作中经常勾着背、身体向前趴。大概一年前，我专门做了一番努力来改变这种状况。
着手
我长期以来一直在跟坐姿做斗争。我又高又瘦，但这不但没有帮助我，反而使我的坐姿问题更严重。于是，就在去年四月，当我因为成为一个健身俱乐部的新会员而免费获得了私人教练，我决定把这当成一次机会来学习更多关于坐姿问题，以及如何训练改正。
在私教的第一学期中，教练通过让我做一系列的动作来测试和判断我的整体健康程度，看看我的身体在那些部位需要提高。尽管自认为是一个比较健康的人，我仍然在腹肌和臀肌练习上遇到麻烦。为什么？
动力学链(The Kinetic Chain)
物理疗法中有一种概念叫做动力学链。简单的说，这个理论指明我们不能对人体的各个运动部位作相互独立的看待。当我们的身体的某一部位受到伤害或发育不平衡，系统机能会通过把它向其它部位肌肉和关节扩散来进行补偿。例如，臀肌发育不平衡就会扩散到背部和肩膀。
动力学链的扩散效应
从我的情况看，我相信，长期数小时的坐在电脑前导致了我的臀部肌肉的发育不平衡。当我们坐着时，我们的腹肌并没有参与出力。重要的是，臀肌收缩，长此以往会变短。
变短的臀肌和虚弱的腹肌，这直接导致了一个过度向前倾的盆骨，这意味着我们的屁股有前屈的倾向。一定程度的前区是正常的，我的背部在自然情况下是有 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。前屈会扩散到动力学链上，导致明显的背部弯曲。过度弯曲的背意味着你的肩和头 必须向前弯曲来进行补偿。
向前倾斜的盆骨
无论你坐的姿势十分的正确还是弓着背趴着，你都会遇到这些问题。当然，正确的坐姿能减少这种危害的程度，但这并不是解决问题的办法——至少，这些对我是不够的。
我的成果
避免盆骨前倾的办法在理论上相当的直接——强化腹肌和臀肌，舒展相对的肌肉——背部肌肉和臀屈肌。实际操作中，这有点复杂。
我还是像往常一样做着相同的锻炼，但我修改了一些，着重锻炼上面说的几处。我增加了提重和臀外展肌的锻炼。增加了竖脊肌和臀屈肌的舒展锻炼。我还开始做反抓引体向上，这主要针对三角肌，努力扳回我的肩膀。
我最近还开始尝试使用立式办公桌，这种桌子最近在程序员中有流行的趋势。我无疑很喜欢我的立式电脑桌。但我不认为这是我的问题的解决方案。事实上， 如果经过了这么多年坐着办公，你一旦突然站着办公，这极有可能会引起伤痛。如果你之前腹肌和臀肌很弱，站着办公实际上对你的下腰增加了更大的压力。当我第 一次做这样的改变时，我明显的感觉到了腰痛，于是我间断的实施，让我的身体慢慢的适应。
从决定针对性的纠正坐姿开始，距今已有1年。我的身体姿势已经发生了巨大的变化——尽管还没有达到我希望的标准。然而，在很多方面，我明显感觉到了 好处。因为我的肩膀更向后张，我发现在做一些像仰卧举重运动时我比以前更灵活了。从地上举起东西也变得更容易了，我的屁股事实上有了一些弧度来适应这个动 作，有人说这种变化在女人身上是很有好处的，但我没有任何科学数据来证明这一点。我以前经常出现的肩部疼痛。现在基本消失了。我现在能站立更久的时间而不 感到疲倦。所以，总之，我健康了很多。
身体姿势上的问题在可预见的将来仍将是我继续抗争的目标。但我已经找到了逐步改善我的姿势的方法。要领是，我们的这种职业是固有的非自然的，它需要 我们大部分时间里处于静止位置。在某种程度上我们可以通过多次休息，舒展身体，户外运动，经常移动来打破这种模式，让我们状态更好，更健康，更长寿。还有 更高的工作效率和更清晰的开发程序的大脑。
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原文链接：https://blog.csdn.net/weixin_33963594/article/details/92538812