Fix sitting posture with the Brugger Technique
A quick way to fix your posture without leaving your chair
Neck pain and sitting for too long come hand in hand. It has been said again and again, that sitting is a position which brings on a whole host of problems. It is always advised to break up your time in the chair by standing up every twenty minutes.
However, there are instances when getting up for a stroll is not an option. For those times, there is a technique that allows us to adjust our posture and give a stretch to the spine to put it at ease for a moment.
The Brugger exercise has been cited many times but is drastically underutilized.
When working at a desk our neck is carried forward in front of our shoulders which adds extra stress to our entire spine. Our shoulders tend to be internally rotated usually reaching for the keys of the keyboard or another object on the desk. The idea behind the Brugger technique is to momentarily reverse these processes and put the posture at ease while sitting in the chair.
The Brugger exercise is outlined below along with an illustration.
Procedure:
1. Sit on the edge of the chair
2. Raising the chair so that the knees are below the hips is beneficial
3. Sit up tall making sure the head and neck are aligned with your shoulders
4. Depress the shoulders and stretch arms down along your torso
5. Turn the hands out so fingers face outwards
6. Spread the fingers
7. Actively exhale over 5 seconds ( Will activate abdominal and pelvic muscles)
8. Perform this exercise for 30 seconds at regular intervals every 20 minutes when seated for an extended time.