Stiff after sitting? Start your morning with these four trainer-approved moves.
Sitting injuries are an under-recognized cause of stiffness, weakness and pain in adults over 60. People chalk it up to aging, when most of it is the cumulative effect of decades of sitting.
I have been a personal trainer for almost 40 years and the last 20 yearsI was its director and co-founder TELEVISIONa provider of in-person and online training courses. One thing I’ve learned is that the body responds very quickly to exercise, even after years of being inactive.
These four simple exercises did the first thing every morningcan reverse a surprising amount of this damage in a matter of weeks.
Why is it so hard to remove?
By far the biggest problem is the assumption that one stretching session will fix it. The damage from sitting takes decades. To cope, the body has changed forms of compensation, strengthened ligaments, weakened muscles and breathing patterns. None of this is fixed in two weeks and people get frustrated when they expect a quick win.
The second is the pain when they finally start moving. Tissues that haven’t been stretched in years complain when they need to. People sometimes interpret this as an injury and stop, when what they really should be doing is reducing the range a bit and continuing.
The third is morning hesitation. Most people over 60 are at their peak, so it’s tempting to sit on the couch with a cup of tea and wait until you feel better. The body will not improve with this strategy. It just stays hard and the day is already lost.
And the fourth is the form of breathing. After decades of sitting, most people breathe into the upper chest rather than the diaphragm, and the back muscles are locked in a low-grade contraction trying to keep the body upright. Correction involves teaching the body to breathe and stand up again, which is more than just a stretching routine.
What sitting does to your body
The hip flexors shorten at the front of the hip and begin to pull on the lower back. This is the main reason why back pain is such a common complaint in this age group. It often has nothing to do with the back itself.
Bottles go to sleep. After enough hours of sitting on them, the brain stops activating them and the body recruits the back and lower back to do what the crunches are supposed to do. This is why so many people over 60 walk with short, stubby steps.
The upper back is stiffened into a forward curve. The chest muscles contract, the shoulders roll in, and the head sits in front of the shoulders. This is a condition that is blamed on age, when it is actually made by chairs.
Both blood circulation and metabolism slow down. Sitting for long periods of time reduces the activity of an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase, which helps the body process fat. This is why prolonged sitting is now linked to higher rates of heart disease and diabetes, even in people who exercise an hour a day.
Why mornings work best
The body is at its most rigid, which means it benefits most from gentle movement. Joints that have been still for eight hours respond very well to careful warming, and the joint fluid that lubricates them promotes circulation.
Doing things in the morning also sets the mood for the day. Get up at 7am and you’ll probably be up at 11am. Sit in a slump for the first hour and the body will maintain this form until something else restores it.
There is also a side of habit. Mornings are a protected time for most people, before the demands of the day. It’s harder to get through a workout that happens between waking up and breakfast than a workout that happens after a tiring day at 5:00 p.m.
Half Knee Hip Flexor
This directly targets the hip flexors. After decades of sitting, these muscles become short, tight, and pull on your back every time you stand up. Letting them go in the morning is the only move that puts more stress on the lower back throughout the day.
How to do it:
- Kneel on one knee with the other foot on the floor in front of you, knee at about 90 degrees
- Place a towel under the knee for comfort
- Place the pelvis under the feet and squeeze the back
- Carefully move the weight forward until you feel a pull in the front of the hip
- Hold for 30 seconds, then switch sides
Avoid these mistakes:
- Do not arch your lower back; cup instead, or you’ll put length on the spine
- Don’t lean so far forward, you’ll lose your balance
- Don’t forget to squeeze the rear glute, which is what protects the lower back
Cat cow standing
This mobilizes the spine in both directions without touching the ground. The thoracic spine, the part between the shoulder blades, is the part that gets the most tension from sitting, and this movement hits it more effectively than most stretches of the floor.
How to do it:
- Feet hip-width apart, knees gently bent
- Place the hands on the thighs above the knees
- Round your back, tuck your chin and pelvis, as if hugging a beach ball
- Hold a breath
- Reverse the movement, arch your back, lift your chest and look up slightly
- Move slowly between the two for 8 reps
Avoid these mistakes:
- Just don’t move the lower back and keep the upper back tight
- Do not squeeze the neck; let it follow the spine
- Don’t hold your breath.
Glute money
This wakes up the glutes, which have been turned off by all that sitting, and stretches the hip flexors at the top of the movement. Strong tires are what restore the normal gait of the walker and take the load off the back.
How to do it:
- Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat on the floor, hip width apart
- Tighten your lower back muscles and lift your legs towards the ceiling until your body forms a straight line from your knees to your shoulders.
- Hold at the top for 3 seconds
- Under control
- Repeat 10 times
Avoid these mistakes:
- Don’t push it into the lower back rather than the abs, or you’ll feel it in the wrong place
- Do not lift the back arches so high
- Do not allow the knees to collapse or spread.
Wall angel
This opens the chest, mobilizes the upper back and activates the muscles between the shoulders that have been dormant for years. This is the antidote to the round posture that sitting creates.
How to do it:
- Stand with your back, bottom and head against the wall, feet a foot or so away from the wall
- Gently press the bottom edge against the wall to smooth the curve
- Raise your arms to shoulder height, elbows bent to 90 degrees, palms facing forward, backs of hands, elbows and hands touching the wall.
- Slowly slide the hands up the wall, maintaining contact, then back down
- Repeat 8 to 10 times
Avoid these mistakes:
- Do not allow the lower back arch to come away from the wall
- When shoulder movement does not allow this, do not force the hands to touch the wall; work within your scope
- Do not rush to move.
How to make your morning routine
Move for a minute or two before starting. Go to the kitchen, fill the kettle, then turn around. Before doing any stretching, the body needs a minimal amount of warm-up, and on a cold morning even thirty seconds of walking in place is enough.
Do the exercises in the order above. Hip flexors first because they have the most impact on what comes next. Then the spine, then the bones, then the upper back. This sequence works the body from the bottom up and from hard to less hard.
Do not push the range. Morning tissues are cooler and less elastic than evening tissues. The goal is to introduce a gentle movement, not to test your maximum stretch. A steady pull is the right tension. A strong feeling of withdrawal means withdrawal.
Five to eight minutes is a daily routine if you can manage it. Six days a week is a good realistic goal. Skip a day if you have had poor sleep or are under the weather. A day off doesn’t undo anything.
What to do in 4 to 6 weeks
By the end of the first week, most people notice that getting out of bed is easier and the first hour of the day is less stressful. The body responds to exercise in the morning faster than anything done in the evening.
Within 2 to 3 weeksThe nagging back pain that comes with prolonged sitting is often relieved. The step is easier, partly because the hip flexors have stopped pulling back and partly because the hamstrings have started firing again.
Up to 4 weeksThere is a change in position. Family members often comment that you look taller or stand straighter. Shoulders sit back without conscious effort and the upper back feels less constricted.
Up to 6 weeksenergy is significantly better in the morning and the time between getting out of bed and feeling good shortens from an hour or more to a few minutes. The body has stopped paying the daily tax that was levied for sitting damages.
The fair warning is that none of this is exactly the opposite. Decades of sitting damage can take more than six weeks to fully reverse. What four exercises a day will change you, enough to stand out, look better and stop the slide. Bigger changes will happen if you continue for six weeks and add some steady work along with it.
