Are you sitting at a computer right now? Do you ever experience back pain? Back pain sucks! According to the National Institute of Heath 80% of adults will experience back pain at some point.



One cause of back pain can be excessing sitting. When we sit for too long, muscles around our hips get tight and weak. That wreaks havoc on our body by pulling the pelvis into a forward tilted position. Getting up and walking more along with your regular daily activities is helpful, but it doesn't always alleviate the problem entirely

Sitting and Back Pain

When we sit all day long we create issues that lead to our hips tilting forward. The muscles in the front of our hips get cramped and tight. Our precious abs get weak. And we flatten our butt cheeks to the point that they forget how to do what they’re supposed to do. What you often end up with is a condition called anterior pelvic tilt. Which means that our hips are stuck in that forward tilted position.



Once our hips get stuck in anterior pelvic tilt, everything is leaning forward. So we begin to tighten the muscles around the spine and arching the lower back more to stay upright. This is extra arch in the lower back is called hyperlordosis. Overtime this hyperlordosis may be what’s causing you back pain.

Correct the posture

To begin fixing this we have to train the muscles around the hips to hold the pelvis back in a more neutral position. I often tell personal training clients to imagine that we are trying to keep a bowl level. If it tilts too far forward, we'll spill our Lucky Charms. And that is sad.



We can start stretching the hip flexor muscles. This will help them quit pulling the pelvis forward as much. Our abs and obliques should be trained to pull the front of the pelvis up. And the glutes need strengthened to pull the back of our pelvis down. All this means we're gonna quit standing around with our butts arched out like Kim Kardashian.



How do we do all this? With 3 exercises. I'll show you.



Tall or Half Kneeling Stretch

I love the tall kneeling and half kneeling stretches. You can practice them on their own or combine them with other types of exercises, like pressing. No matter how you do them, these active stretches help reduce tension in your hip flexors. That starts getting you back to a more neutral hip position.