Stretch for Success
Published March 18, 2008

Photo by: iStockphoto

The best businesses are nimble, agile and extremely flexible. In fact, so are the most effective business owners. In part two of our small business fitness guide, learn simple strategies for staying loose and sitting up straight. Both your spine and your bottom line will benefit.

By: MATT ALDERTON

As a rule, small business owners are stiff. Their thumbs are permanently crooked from typing on their handhelds. Their hands resemble claws from gripping too tightly their computer mice. Their backs have humps from spending hours on end in a forward-leaning lurch. Even their necks, once straight, seem to have a permanent crook in them from so many client calls.

Unfortunately, when your back is out of whack, it's not just your posture that suffers. Your productivity feels pain, too, according to health expert Janice Novak, author of Posture, Get It Straight!

"We have become a nation of professional sitters," Novak says. "By stopping the slouch, supporting your back properly and avoiding the head-forward position, you will be able to work more comfortably and productively."

Naturally, when you're able to work more comfortably and productively, you're also able to work more successfully, to the benefit of both your body and your business. It pays, therefore, to straighten up. Here's how.

Perfect Posture

Whether you work from your home or from an office, chances are that running your business is ruining your back.

"You could walk into any office building all around America and see people sitting behind computers in really bad posture positions," Novak says. "Necks craning forward, slumping upper backs, rounded shoulders."

Sitting too long, she continues, is a major contributor to back and neck discomfort, as sitting puts continuous pressure—40 percent more pressure, in fact—on the muscles in your lower back, not to mention the disks in your spine. What's more, sitting in poor alignment causes your abdominal muscles to weaken, which spells trouble for that six pack that you've been doing crunches every night in order to get.

"The more you slump, the weaker your muscles get," Novak says.

In order to find your strength again, consider Novak's tips for perfect seated posture:

• From a side view, your ear, shoulder and hip should be in a straight line.
• Your head should be centered over your shoulders, not dropped forward.
• Your rib cage should be slightly lifted, not pressing on your lungs.
• Your arms should be supported by padded armrests.
• Your shoulders should be relaxed.
• Your butt should be against the back of your chair.
• Your lower back should not be rounded backward.
• Your thighs should be fully supported by the chair seat.
• Your feet should be flat on the floor, or supported by a stool.

• Hands and Wrists: To relieve stress from your arms due to working at the computer, try making a fist with both hands after every 45 minutes of computer work; start with your hands open and your fingers spread widely, then slowly close them into a tight fist. Repeat the exercise five or six times whenever your hands are tense. "You can also stretch your arms up as high as you can, as if you're trying to pick an apple from a tree," Gottlieb says. "Do this 10 times, alternating sides."
• Neck: To release neck tension, try relaxing your shoulders and rolling your head slowly forward with your chin tucked in. Slowly rotate your head forward from one shoulder to the next, being careful not to raise your shoulders.
• Shoulders: You can loosen up your shoulders, chest and back by doing what Gottlieb describes as a "funky chicken" like exercise. From either a sitting or standing position, place your fingers on your shoulders and then point your elbows outward, putting them as far back as you can and then as far forward, until they touch. Next, lift them up as high as they'll go and then down, like a bird flapping its wings.
• Face: Relax your facial muscles by tightly closing your eyes and mouth, holding them closed and clenched for five seconds, then releasing and repeating.
• Back: Stretch your back after prolonged periods of sitting by interlocking your fingers, turning your palms outward and extending your arms away from your body as far as you can. Do this from your desk chair, keeping your back straight and your arms parallel to your desktop; stretch further by turning your shoulders to the right, center and left.
• Abs: Get the six-pack you've been craving—the stomach, not the beer—by using your abs to lift yourself up from your chair when you stand up; that means standing without the assistance of your chair's arms. Also try sitting on physio ball while you're working to engage your core.
• Legs: You can build strength in your legs, and also stretch them out, by holding onto your desk while standing, then slowly lifting one heel at a time toward your butt. Slowly lower the heel back to the ground and repeat 12 to 15 times on each leg.
• Glutes: To build up your butt muscles while you're working—and to keep them from falling asleep—squeeze them together six to eight times in a row several times a day; hold each squeeze for 5 to 10 seconds, then release.