| If you're a competitive runner or even a casual | | | | about 130 degrees, with the knees slightly bent. |
| jogger, you have likely read a few articles or a | | | | This is the same position astronauts naturally float |
| book on training. If your reading included advice on | | | | into in zero gravity. No matter how comfortable, |
| technique, it also likely encouraged you to "run tall" | | | | expensive, or "ergonomic" a chair purports to be, |
| accompanied by a colorful, but unhelpful metaphor | | | | if it locks you into a 90 degree torso to hip angle |
| of string tied to your head or a rope and pulley | | | | it will cause damage to your spine and posture |
| attached to your chest. After several dutiful | | | | over the long haul. Kneeling chairs, perching chairs, |
| attempts to "run tall," most runners then quit | | | | and stools are good alternatives to the standard |
| paying attention to their technique not really | | | | chair. Kneeling chairs in particular are usually built at |
| knowing what they were trying to achieve in the | | | | a fixed angle that puts you precisely in the |
| first place or if they managed to succeed in their | | | | correct position. Although not as effective as a |
| attempts or not. | | | | purpose built chair, regular chairs can also be |
| What the call to "run tall" is really saying is that | | | | modified with seat wedges to help open up the |
| you should run with good posture. Many of us run | | | | hip angle. |
| with our head slumped forward and our lower | | | | Once the torso to hip angle has been fixed the |
| back rounded out, curling our upper body into a C | | | | lower back naturally uncurls and the body floats |
| shape. Running with good posture reduces injuries | | | | upward into good posture with relative easy. The |
| by alleviating the stress this position places on the | | | | next problem is that many of us have a monitor |
| spine and freeing the joints of the lower body to | | | | in front of us. The head naturally floats to the |
| run with an easy stride. | | | | position where the eyes are looking at the middle |
| So then, how to run with good posture? And why | | | | of the screen, and the body follows. This can be |
| do we run with bad posture in the first place? | | | | particularly disastrous as most of us have our |
| Running with bad posture is usually the tip of the | | | | monitors positioned far too low for comfortable |
| ice berg. Many of us unthinkingly carry ourselves | | | | viewing, causing us to keep drifting into a slump. |
| with poor posture, which is simply carried over to | | | | So now what we need is something to raise our |
| the activity of running when we head out for a | | | | monitor with. Adjustable height monitor raisers do |
| workout. Most often laziness is blamed as the | | | | the trick nicely. To find the proper height, sit up |
| problem for poor posture, but the real culprit is | | | | straight and raise your monitor until the center of |
| the silent partner in forming our postural | | | | the screen is positioned right in front of your |
| habits--the chair. Modern life puts most of us in | | | | eyes. Also maintain proper distance from your |
| offices where we spend the majority of our days | | | | monitor by placing it far enough away from your |
| seated. The standard 90 degree chair forces the | | | | body that you can extend your arm in front of |
| spine in to the same C shaped position observed | | | | you and still have about an inch in front of your |
| while running, warping the upper body into its | | | | fingertips. |
| shape without most sitters ever even thinking | | | | Now you are set up to sit correctly. Your hips are |
| about it. | | | | opened to a natural angle and you can't help but |
| An average of 8-10 hours a day of sitting time | | | | effortlessly float upward into good posture as |
| renders the 30 minutes 2-3 times per week we | | | | your eyes attempt to position themselves in the |
| spend trying to run tall doomed to failure. | | | | center of your screen. This simple, unassuming |
| However, now that we know the true root cause | | | | task of correcting your seated position will have |
| of our postural woes, we can begin trying to | | | | far more impact on correcting your posture, |
| correct the problem at its source. The first order | | | | alleviating discomfort, and even allowing you to |
| of business is to correct the torso to hip angle. | | | | run with more grace and ease than anything else |
| The body naturally prefers a torso to hip angle of | | | | you can do. |