Posture & Work

Good posture helps breathing, digestion and circulation, as well as keeping your bones
straight and strong. Good posture is kind of a continuous low-intensity strength exercise.
Posture is taken seriously in martial arts. The stances are the very first things taught because it gives you better balance, power and movement.

A chef friend of mine used his Kung Fu footwork to move around his kitchen when work got busy.
He claimed it always helped him work faster and more efficiently. No air-kicks or shadow boxing, just nimble pivoting from one side of the kitchen to the other.

Most jobs do not contribute to good posture. You can mitigate at least some of the negative effectswith the right exercises. Sit-down office and driving jobs, for instance, can have a shortening effect on your quads and hip flexors, so make a point of frequently stretching the muscles in the front of your thighs.

You can also use ergonomic seating. Saddle chairs now are very popular with dentists who
often have to contend with working at posturally difficult angles. Saddle chairs allow your
legs to hang lower than normal chairs, forming a more comfortable hip/leg angle. As the
name suggests they are modeled on horse saddles.
Swiss ball are great too, however they are usually too low for the average desk.

Whatever form of seating you opt for, choose the one that will cause you the least problems.
Sitting 40 hours a week, 48 weeks a year over your full working life can get hard on your back, so always take regular stretching breaks.

Operating heavy power tools, floor tiling, digging holes, fixing overhead lights and pipes,
cleaning and gardening can all be physically and posturally hard.

Working predominantly with one hand continually can really create a right/left strength imbalance in your body. To counter this state of affairs you can help yourself by extra stretching for the muscles on the side of your body you use most and extra strengthening on the side you use least. Try to be as ambidextrous as safety and productivity allows you to be.