You're a gym rat, addicted to training. You work hard in the gym on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. We're lifers here, there's no end to training until there are at least 6 feet of dirt holding you down. You're doing everything right for about 1 hour a day, but what about the other 23? When I taught school, and now as a coach and trainer, I often refer to the 23 Hour Rule. You cannot undo 23 bad hours in 1 good hour a day. This is especially true since most people only train 2-3 days per week. That means that you have an accumulated 165 hours per week outside the gym with 3 in the gym. That's a ratio of about 56 to 1.
There are a variety of things that the 23 Hour Rule applies to in everyday life. Today we're going to key in on posture. In the gym, position is power. That means that if I am able to move correctly as I squat, run, jump, and pull, I will have greater output and therefore greater results. It also means that I can do all the things I enjoy doing in the gym for the rest of my life instead of creating overuse injuries from poor movement over long periods of time. Remember the ratio above, if you train for about 3 hours per week, your time outside the gym to time inside the gym ratio is about 56:1. That means if you are moving with poor posture 56 times more often than you pay attention to movement you are never going to be able to correct that with just time in the gym. If you spend a great deal of that time in a seat, the resulting posture is even worse. Will your training time help? Absolutely, if you are paying attention to position and form as you train. (You are doing that right? New gym personal records aren't worth being injured and missing training and future personal records.)
There are a variety of things that the 23 Hour Rule applies to in everyday life. Today we're going to key in on posture. In the gym, position is power. That means that if I am able to move correctly as I squat, run, jump, and pull, I will have greater output and therefore greater results. It also means that I can do all the things I enjoy doing in the gym for the rest of my life instead of creating overuse injuries from poor movement over long periods of time. Remember the ratio above, if you train for about 3 hours per week, your time outside the gym to time inside the gym ratio is about 56:1. That means if you are moving with poor posture 56 times more often than you pay attention to movement you are never going to be able to correct that with just time in the gym. If you spend a great deal of that time in a seat, the resulting posture is even worse. Will your training time help? Absolutely, if you are paying attention to position and form as you train. (You are doing that right? New gym personal records aren't worth being injured and missing training and future personal records.)
The Problem
Most Americans spend most of their time sitting down. That would be great if it wasn't for the fact that your body was made for motion. The only time you should be stationary for extended periods of time is when you're asleep. It also means that you can very easily go a full week without bending any of the joints from your hips down to your ankles past 90 degrees. You wake up and roll out of bed, walk to the breakfast table and sit down. You get in the car for your commute to your desk where you sit for the next 8-10 hours. Back to the car to the living room where you sit for the remainder of the evening before going to bed and doing it all again. Why is this a problem? Because it teaches your body that it only needs to move through these abbreviated ranges of motion. That means very tight hips and ankles and knees that have to be unnaturally mobile. This leads to lower back pain, hip pain, knee pain, ankle pain, pain pain, and all kinds of other things that you do not want. In gym talk that means your squats will be terrible, you won't be able to get into position to deadlift correctly, you'll probably run and jump poorly, and you'll always have to contend with pain. I think you can see that this is an undesirable situation.The Solution
Move! No seriously, get up from your desk every 15-20 minutes, even if it's just to stand up for a minute before returning to your chair. Get a bluetooth headset so you can walk and talk. Even better, get a standing desk and be a trendsetter in your office. You'll be amazed how much more alert you are as you shake off the malaise that is the result of hours upon hours of sitting. When you get home at the end of the day, don't just plant yourself on the couch for the remainder of the evening. Go for a walk, play in the floor with your kids, do the 1 or 2 projects you've been avoiding around the house because you're just "too tired" to do anything else. A moving body is a happy body. And if you reduce the ratio of sedentary to active and good positions and posture to bad position from 56:1 to almost anything else, you'll see the benefits.
Stay tuned for more thoughts on the 23 Hour Rule as we move forward. We'll cover more topics regarding posture, nutrition, recovery, and a handful of other things to which the 23 Hour Rule applies. In the meantime, get up and move around. Right now. As always, you can interact with this and other topics in the comments or by emailing me at disruptivefitness@gmail.com. If you'd like to get a notification in your inbox when there is a new blog or video available, enter your email in the box to the right to subscribe.
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