Improve Comfort While Sitting at Your Desk

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Improve Comfort While

Sitting At Your Desk

by

Leland Vall

Certified Alexander Technique Instructor

New York, NY

If you find a long day of sitting at your desk uncomfortable, you might blame any number of things:

your computer, your chair, your work.. And while each of these may present challenges, an important

component in all these challenges is how you respond to them. Responding to daily challenges with ex-

cess tension can be the most important contributor to your discomfort.

The Alexander Technique is a method for building awareness that can help you avoid responding to

challenges with excess tension. While the Alexander Technique is usually taught by a trained instructor

to guide you through this process, you can try the following short investigation right now, while you are

sitting at your desk in front of your computer. It can help you better understand how to eliminate habits

of excess tension so that you can feel more comfortable while you are sitting at your desk.

Alexander Technique

Self-Lesson

First, Don’t get ready. Don’t change your position and don’t try to sit “correctly.” Each of the

following bullet points will ask you to explore subtle instances of excess tension that you may be

causing.

Take a moment to experience yourself sitting there. Neither freeze in place nor change your po-

sition.

Without changing anything, place your attention on the back of your neck, the area just below the

base of your skull. Almost everyone has tension here and if you gain some insight into what you

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are doing, you might be able to get rid of that tension with just a thought.

But don’t do anything about it for the moment.

The base of your skull is not the end of your spine. Your spine extends

all the way to about the level of your ears, as high as the roof of your

mouth. Your head is perched there at the top of your spine with most of

its weight forward of the spine.

While still noticing the tension at the base of your skull, and without

muscularly moving your head, gently allow the crown of your head to

rotate, almost imperceptibly, forward and up (a link to a video on head

position). If you are able to allow the crown of your head to rotate for-

ward and up, as opposed to moving your head muscularly, you might

notice a softening of the spot at the back of your neck, as well as some-

thing that you might describe as “extra room” in your neck.

If you are getting tired sitting in one place, maybe it is time to

change your position. Change position if you want, but do it a little

more slowly than usual and pay attention to that spot at the back of

your neck. As you move your body, the muscles in the back of your

neck may tighten excessively.

Once again, allow the crown of your head to gently, and almost im-

perceptibly, rotate forward and up. As you allow for this rotation, see

again if you notice the extra room at the back of your neck.

Without disturbing your new head

position, point your spine up toward

and past the back of your head. Think

of pointing your spine as if you were

pointing your finger. (A link to a video

on pointing your spine.)

Notice if you feel some extra room in your whole torso or if

your breathing is a little easier.

Without moving your feet, add them to your awareness and allow your

heels to fall toward the floor. As you do this, you might discover a feel-

ing of extra room in the back of your legs.

Crown of head.

Top of

spine.

Less Good Head falling down and back with

spine falling forward.

Better Crown of head rotated forward

and up with spine pointing up

and past the back of head.



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Adding Movement - Leaning Forward

Habits of excess tension become more evident when we bend and move.

But before you try this, now might be a good time to gently put yourself

in a better sitting position.

Without losing awareness of your previous activity, place your feet

fully on the floor and move your hips and torso all the way to the back of

the chair as shown in the photos.

After you have improved your position, once again allow the crown

of your head to gently, almost imperceptibly, rotate forward and up as

you also point your spine up and past the back of your head (like your

finger pointing) while allowing your heels to fall into the floor.

As shown in the photograph on the left, bend forward from the hips

(more on finding your hips) while continuing to allow for all the previous

activities (head rotating forward and up, spine pointing up and past the

back of your head, heels falling into the floor). After bending forward,

return to the previous position with your torso against the back of the

chair. This movement may feel easier than bending at the waist. The trick to bending forward

with greater ease is to make sure that you bend from the hips and that the relationship between

your head and torso stays fairly similar throughout the movement.

To find out a little bit more about

what you are doing when you bend for-

ward, gently place your hand on the back

of your neck as shown in the photo on

the right.

With your hand on the back of your

neck, bend forward from the hips, just as

you did before, while continuing to al-

low for all the previous activities (head

rotating forward and up, spine pointing

up and past the back of your head, heels

falling into the floor). As you do this,

you should feel that your hand does not

get squeezed between your head and

shoulders.

Once you are able to bend forward from the hips while continu-

ing to allow for all the previous activities (head rotating forward

and up, spine pointing up and past the back of your head, heels

falling into the floor) experiment with rocking back and forth or

in a circle, even twisting your torso to look behind you.

Bending Forward - Good Notice that I am bending from

the hips, not the waist, and the

relationship between my head

and torso stays the same.

Bending Forward - Better

This photo shows my hand not

being squeezed as I bend for-

ward.

Bending Forward - Less Good This photo shows my hand being

squeezed between my head and

shoulders.






Learning to move and sit at your desk in the way described in the exercise can help you find a renewed

sense of lightness and ease. But don’t expect it to be instantaneous. For best results, take a few minutes

every day to go through this investigation, or whenever you want to check in with your posture. Over

time it can help you to strengthen your back, improve your posture, and, most importantly, it can help

you to use your body with less tension as you work so that you feel more comfortable. Or better yet, try

an actual Alexander Technique lesson.

More resources on comfortable sitting.

The Chair Is Incidental

Video: The Chair Is Incidental

Video: Improve Computer Posture

Improve Computer Posture

How to Lean Back in a Chair

Seated Bending? Use Your Hip Joints

Video: How to Lean Back in a Chair

Video: Think of the Chair as Your Legs

Point Your Spine when Bending Forward

Seated Bending, Use Your Hip Joints

Reaching While Sitting

Seated Bending, Lead with Your Head



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Improve Comfort While Sitting at Your Desk

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