Sitting at a computer desk caused the most stubborn injuries I’ve ever had. Speaking from experience, poor posture from sitting can lead to long term muscle pain and tension. Neck and back pain were the most noticeable for me. But I also had a lot of issues with my legs, arms, neck and shoulders.
The good news is, improving your posture doesn’t always require going to the physical therapist. The goal is to implement the most good habits into our daily routine, that will make the biggest improvement over time.
Nothing on my website is medical advice. I share my experience, what has worked for me, and what hasn’t. I talk about the common posture mistakes I’ve fixed and the good posture habits I’ve learned.
You are your primary caretaker. Not your doctor, therapist, surgeon, coach, or physical therapist. They all play a role. But they also have their own agenda and their own motivation that’s not always in our best interest, regardless if it’s intentional or not. Do your research and make your own good decisions. Be the best advocate possible for your own healthcare.
4 Rookie Mistakes That Made My Bad Posture Much Worse
1. Overtraining during strengthening exercises led to long term muscle pain
As athletes, we’ve all been guilty of it. Thinking we had an “awesome workout” because we’re “so sore” the day afterwards. If we’re so sore that it hurts to walk, or go up and down stairs, we’re probably doing excessive reps during strengthening exercises. This would mean that I couldn’t exercise the next day, which resulted in less volume overall. It would also mean I’d make more common posture mistakes at my office job. If I didn’t feel strong and energetic at my desk, my poor posture would worsen at a faster rate.
More isn’t always better. When I was in college, a lot of muscle magazines would talk about “burn out” sets of strengthening exercises. What I didn’t realize was those guys weren’t sitting at a desk 8 to 10 hours per day, battling constant gravity, repetitive strain, and overuse all day long. I learned the hard way to take this into consideration and listen to my body.
Getting that burn, or soreness, gives athletes that instant gratification that what they’re doing has to be good for them. It’s a misunderstood feeling of accomplishment. Plus, overtraining and being sore is what most people around me were doing. It was an easy trap to fall into and participate in.
Some coaches have also led me down the wrong path. It’s human nature to want to do something that a coach is challenging us to do. However, sometimes they aren’t motivated by what’s in our best interest. Plus, they are coaching in a gym all day. They aren’t sitting at a computer with bad posture and repetitive strain injuries. There is a very fine line between getting a great workout versus a destructive workout. It’s up to each of us to figure out what that means for ourselves.
Our hip flexor and core muscles are already overworked from helping us sit up straight all day. If we use a standing posture at a computer, even more muscles are overworked. Then, I would go to the gym after work to overload those muscles even more.
Nowadays, I’m not concerned about how much I do in a single workout (reps, time, weight). Especially if I’m so sore with muscle pain that I can’t exercise the next day. Instead, I’m more motivated about how energetic, pain-free, and strong I feel when I wake up the next morning. This is crucial to maintaining my good posture at a computer, regardless if I’m using a sitting or standing posture.
A huge lesson I’ve learned about training, I can still get great workouts in and not feel sore the next day. Training this way will also lead to more volume of strengthening exercises over the course of a week, because I’m not taking days off from the gym for being too sore. This just takes the right balance of training, hydration, recovery, and nutrition. For me, this has been a solid key to improving your posture.
2. Eating nutrition-less foods can lead to bad posture quickly
Anything that prevents us from feeling strong, pain-free, and energetic is directly related to the poor posture we maintain. Nutrition is at the top of that list of variables for me. In the past, poor nutrition has exponentially affected my bad posture. Now, I focus on eating real, healthy, nutrient-dense foods. This has improved my good posture habits over the long term.
Conversely, bad posture can lead to poor eating habits. It’s a nasty two-way street. We’re tired from the poor posture, so we just want to find something quick to eat. We look for the path of least resistance, fast food.
I recently stopped eating fast food completely and started cooking all my meals at home. Since then, I’ve lost about 20 pounds. It was pretty eye-opening, considering I wasn’t even trying to lose weight. I’d done zero cardio all year because I had 2 ankle surgeries in 2022. My ankles still won’t allow cardio, although they’ve improved in a big way. I just don’t have the flexibility and muscle activation yet but I’m still working on it every day. The main contributing factors of my weight loss were lifting weights, having a physically active career (no longer sitting at a computer), breath work, and increasing my red meat intake (grass fed as much as possible, but grass fed & grass finished whenever possible).
I would estimate that I eat about a half pound to a pound of quality red meat, eggs, and bacon a day. This may sound like a lot. Many athletes and coaches I follow actually eat much more than this. Aside from the nutritional benefits, red meat satisfies my hunger quickly (which is called satiety, I just learned that word). This satiety has completely eliminated the urge for things like fast food, burritos filled with beans and rice, french fries, and also ice cream (which was always a problem with me). I haven’t sacrificed any taste with my new cooking habits. The food I cook tastes better than any fast food I used to eat.
3. Drinking excessive amounts of caffeine
There’s a big misconception about caffeine these days. Many people will talk about how caffeine is not bad for you. In low doses, they may be right. But in higher doses, it used to have a large effect on the hydration levels in my body. Combine that with not drinking enough water, sugar intake, and alcohol consumption. This led to a recipe for disaster when it came to my muscle and tendon health.
A few years ago, I drank a lot of caffeine to get through the workday. I never drank coffee. I would drink sugar-free energy drinks. There eventually came a point where I became dependent on caffeine. I couldn’t focus on my workday without it. Then, I got to a point where I couldn’t focus even if I did drink caffeine. The more caffeine I would drink, the more negative effect it would have on my hydration level.
At that point, chronic tendonitis and muscle pain started to set in. The worst pain was located in both of my knees. After a short run, my knees would be sore for a week. This led me to give up caffeine 100% for many years. Lately, I have started drinking much lower amounts of caffeine. Only about 95 milligrams per drink. I’ll poor the caffeinated drink into a thermos, then I’ll add some quality water to it. I never get a jittery feeling from the caffeine because I dilute it with water.
4. Long distance running with bad posture
I’m a former heel striker. I’ve battled (and bounced back from) chronic pain in both legs, mainly knee tendinosis and shin splints. The main variable that caused this was running long, slow distances with bad posture and poor mechanics.
Today, I like to run or sprint anything less than 400 meters (1/4 mile) at a time. Running anything more than that is a completely different dynamic for me. At a full sprint, I start to lose form pretty quickly after 1/4 mile.
There are many people that run long, slow distances correctly. They’ve put tons of skill work and mental focus into it. As we get older, our poor posture (from sitting at a computer) creates bad running mechanics. I didn’t realize this until both my knees had tendon and muscle pain.
Running is one of the most technical sports that exists. A lot of people take that for granted. I was guilty of it. Back in the day, I’d sit at a computer desk all day. I wouldn’t study running mechanics at all. I’d listen to music when I ran after work. I’d focus on the music instead of the movements. I would heel strike every step, which led to long term, painful shin splints. It took a long time to correct those. I followed a strict program of calf strengthening exercises for months. With stronger calves, the repetitive impact was taken less by my heel and more by my forefoot.
I also took a running certification course led by Brian Mackenzie of shiftadapt.com. It completely changed the way I look at running mechanics. Brian is also a big proponent of using breathwork as a way to improve health and performance. I also took one of his breathwork courses.
If you’ve read this far, congratulations! You’re taking a huge step in improving your quality of life. That’s something to be very proud of. Thanks for your interest in sitting posture. Feel free to share this article with a friend or family member who works at a computer and suffers from common posture mistakes.
If this article was helpful, check out my book titled “45 Ways to Improve Computer Posture.” It’s available in both digital and paperback versions.
>>> Click here to pick up your copy
This book explains how to improve your posture through different variables of health and wellness. These include sitting posture, standing posture, sleep, hydration, and breathing. Poor posture is not just how we sit at a computer. The health habits we practice, 24 hours a day, are directly related to how good (or bad) our computer posture is.
Go to SittingPosture.com/book to learn more.
Take care,
Todd Bowen
P.S. You can sign up for my free computer posture newsletter here.