CHAPTER 3

24 Things to Do to Improve Your Muscular/Skeletal Health and Fitness

In this chapter, we’ll look at how to keep your muscles and bones strong and functioning well, so that your quality of movement is high and your risk of pain and injury is low.

#44: Set Up Your Workstation Properly

In Chapter 1, we looked at why you should limit the amount of time per day you sit. When you do sit, try to do so in the least harmful way.

Slouching rounds your lower back, rounds your shoulder, and thrusts your head forward. This posture increases the load on your spine and strains the muscles of your upper back, shoulders and neck. The potential cascade of compensatory pain and discomfort throughout your body is nearly infinite.

The key to mitigating sitting while you work is to keep a straight spine. According to Daniel Frey, DPT, author of The Runner’s Guide to a Healthy Core, a straight spine while sitting isn’t synonymous with a vertical spine. If you work on a laptop computer or perform work on top of your desk, such as processing paperwork, leaning forward may be better, Frey says. Sit toward the front of your chair instead of using the back support. Bend your feet underneath you slightly so that your knees are lower to the ground than your hips.

If you use a monitor instead of a laptop screen, position it at eye level. It should be close enough that you don’t have to move your head forward to read, but far enough away to lessen the glare. (See item #18 about computers and eyesight.) For most people, that means having the monitor twenty to twenty-six inches away. If you use a monitor, your spine will be better positioned if it is closer to vertical, Frey says. He recommends holding a book on top of your head. If it stays in place, your head is in a good position.

Keep your wrists straight to help them relax. Don’t rest them on your desk or the area in front of the keyboard on a laptop. If you use a mouse, keep your hand on it only when you need to move the cursor or click. Otherwise, remove your hand to relax it.

Try not to sit in one position for more than twenty minutes at a time. If you’re unable to stand and continue working, take short breaks, even if to just walk around your desk or do a few squats. Kneel on one or both knees briefly to stretch the muscles in the top front of your legs. While sitting, squeeze your butt cheeks toward each other for a count of five, relax, and repeat a few times. Shift most of your weight onto one sit bone for a minute, shift to the other for a minute, then return to normal sitting. Place a small rolled towel behind your lower back. Keep coming up with ways to change position and keep your back, butt, and leg muscles activated and well fed with blood.

#45: Stand While You Work

The previous item was about how to sit in the least harmful way. Note I said “least harmful” instead of “most healthful.” As we’ve seen, extensive sitting is bad for many aspects of your health.

An increasing number of office workers are opting to work some or all of the day standing. You could do worse financially than to have a stake in a company that makes standing desks; sales continue to rise as the consequences of sitting become more known.

There are two schools of thought on the best set-up. One advocates having a workstation at which you can only stand, so that you won’t be tempted to sit. The other recommends an adjustable workstation, so that you can alternate sitting or standing. The standing-only method is certainly better long-term and doesn’t mean you can’t have a chair elsewhere in your office.

Early on, most people will do best to gradually transition to standing while working. Start with one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon. Your feet, calf muscles, and butt will be some of the main complainers as you adjust. Over time, add other standing sessions of an hour or less. Fatigue in newly engaged body parts is acceptable; pain isn’t. The longer you’ve been chairbound, the more time you should allow to get used to this new way of working. As with many new health-improvement projects, your chances of long-term success will be greater if you patiently progress in small increments rather than go all in from day one.

If your company won’t provide you a standing desk and you’re unable to afford one, see if you can get away with an improvised variable desk. For example, alternate a traditional sitting set-up with putting your laptop on top of a milk crate or small bench, and placing that item on your desk.

Consider getting a mat, such as you might see grocery cashiers use, to stand on. A softer but not squishy platform will lessen foot and leg fatigue.

If you’re unable to integrate standing into your main work, make use of other opportunities to sit less. Stand during phone calls, when reading print materials, while brainstorming, and any other time you’re not tied to your laptop or other deskbound machinery.

If you’re going to stand more while working, you need to be in the right shoes. (Hint: not heels.) See items #50 and #51 below for more on healthful footwear.

As a cashier could tell you, standing doesn’t replace the need for regular movement. Continue to incorporate regular breaks and changes of bodily position into your workday.

#46: Stand Up Straight

Whether you’re at a desk or elsewhere, good posture while standing relieves the load on your skeleton, lessens muscular strains, and reduces your risk of joint pain because forces are spread more evenly throughout your body rather than overly absorbed by your knees and hips.

In good standing posture, your head, shoulders, hips, and ankles are aligned. Your eyes are facing forward, and your jawbone is parallel to the ground. (Chin up!) Your weight is evenly distributed between your left and right sides. Your weight is also evenly distributed from the back to the front of your feet, rather than concentrated on your heels or the balls of your feet.

Most of us will find standing like this a challenge. Try this: stand against a wall with your heels, pelvis, back, shoulders, and head touching the surface of the wall. This is good standing posture. Now take a few steps forward. Are you still in that position? Probably not. Your head probably moved forward, your shoulders probably rounded, and you probably shifted some of your weight forward so that it was no longer evenly distributed throughout your feet.

One challenge that we long-time slumpers have is holding our shoulders correctly. Check on their position frequently when you stand. Lightly pull them backward and down; feel your shoulder blades move down your back. Envision that your shoulders are low, level, and relaxed, and in line with your hips. Without straining your neck or shoulders, visualize creating more distance between the tops of your shoulders and the bottom of your head.

Head position is often another big challenge. Once you’re holding your shoulders correctly, move your head so that your ears are lined up with your shoulders. Notice how this moves your head back, your chin up, and your gaze forward. Reacquainting yourself with this position can feel odd after years of looking down at a computer screen or phone. Periodically imagine that you’re trying to balance a book on the top of your head. If you realize it would slide down the front or off one side, reposition your head.

When in doubt, return to the wall position to remind yourself what proper standing alignment feels like.

#47: Try Not to Cross Your Legs When You Sit

We saw earlier in this chapter why and how to sit with good posture. But, you know, things happen, and especially early in the process of relearning how to sit properly, it’s common to find that you’ve reverted to old habits. One position you might find yourself in is sitting with one leg crossed over the other.

As soon as you notice you’re sitting like this, uncross your legs and put both feet on the ground. There are three good reasons to take this action.

First, sitting with your legs crossed makes your hips uneven. That’s never good. In the short term, the twist that comes from sitting with your legs crossed can lead to muscular tension from your lower back on up to your neck. Over time, frequently being in a crossed-leg position could cause your pelvis to shift such that you’re always out of alignment. This will alter your gait and can lead to compensatory changes throughout your body. For example, if your pelvis becomes even slightly tilted to the left, your hip and leg muscles on that side could develop low-grade chronic strain from working harder to stabilize your hips when you walk and do other movements.

You may have noticed after sitting with crossed legs that the foot of the crossed leg feels tingly or “asleep.” That’s probably because sitting in that position impinged on the crossed leg’s peroneal nerve, which runs behind the knee down the outer leg into the foot. Repeatedly compromising the nerve in this fashion can damage it, leading to loss of some foot and ankle function.

Your heart also doesn’t appreciate whatever temporary comfort you might derive from sitting with your legs crossed. The position makes it harder to move blood from your feet and legs back up to the heart, resulting in temporarily elevated blood pressure. As with the peroneal nerve compression, the blood pressure spike can be undone by getting out of the crossed-leg position. But also as with the peroneal nerve, regular short-term episodes can accumulate to long-term negative effect.

Not crossing your legs when you sit is the sort of thing you might need to be mindful of at first but that will occur less as you move toward better practices.

#48: Keep Your Body Aligned When You’re Driving

Research on professional drivers has found high incidences of lower back pain (65 percent), neck pain (43 percent), and shoulder pain (40 percent). There are indications that vibrations from the vehicle contribute to some of these woes, but the biggest factor is the difficulty in maintaining good posture when behind the wheel. When you consider how much some of us drive, it’s obvious this isn’t a problem only for the pros.

That your body experiences driving as a form of insult makes intuitive sense—not many people spring out of the car ready for a game of pick-up basketball. More common is a slow rise out of the seat, perhaps with an assist from your arms because your legs don’t feel up to the task, then a sort of John Wayne cowboy sideways stagger for at least a few steps while your lower back, butt, and hamstrings come back to life.

There are several things you can do to lessen the toll that driving takes on your body. Don’t recline your seat more than a few degrees beyond 90 degrees. Keep the seat flat so that your hips are close to the height of your knees. Sit with as much of your thighs supported by the seat as possible. A small towel rolled under your hips or behind your lower back can help to maintain good alignment.

Also, try not to let large muscles such as your hamstrings and glutes be idle for too long. Obviously, for safety’s sake you’re limited in how much you can move around, but occasional subtle shifts in position can help to keep these muscles from falling asleep (more accurately, getting a diminished blood supply). One really good trick: every fifteen minutes, contract your butt muscles. Imagine trying to squeeze your butt cheeks toward each other. Contract, hold for a few seconds, relax, and repeat a few times.

Finally, check periodically that you’re maintaining your initial good posture: when you first get in the car, sit with good alignment and move the rearview mirror so that it provides a clear view of what’s behind you while you’re in this position. Throughout your drive, when you check the rearview mirror, look to see if the view is the same as when you started. If it’s not, you’re slouching. Sit back up to obtain your original view.

#49: Sleep Well

When you consider that you spend close to one-third of your life sleeping, it makes sense that the position you sleep in and other aspects of your time in bed affect how your body feels and operates.

The biggest matter for most people in this regard is whether their sleep position strains their back. Experts advise sleeping in a position that maintains the natural curve of your lower back. For many people, this means sleeping on their side, with the knees drawn slightly toward the chest. Sleeping on your back is even better for maintaining a neutral spine but can lead to more interruptions while you sleep, such as from snoring or other breathing matters when you’re congested from a cold or allergies. Sleeping on your stomach, in contrast, increases strain on your back and can cause neck pain from having your head turned to one side for several hours.

Of course, it’s easier to consciously change your position for something like how you sit at work compared to how you sleep. Depending on in which position you naturally spend the most time, you can make things easier on your spine and neck by choosing the appropriate pillow. If you mostly sleep on your back, use a soft pillow so that your head isn’t propped up too much. If you have frequent back pain, try placing a second pillow under your knees to help maintain a slight curve in your lower back. If you mostly sleep on your side, use a thick pillow so that your head and neck stay better aligned with your spine. If you have frequent back pain, place a second pillow between your legs.

If you can’t help but to sleep on your stomach, use as thin a pillow as possible, or none, to better keep your head and neck aligned. Stomach sleepers who have back pain can get some relief by placing a second pillow under the pelvis and lower abdomen.

#50: Wear Flat Shoes

Photo by Stacey Cramp

Shoes with heels bring to mind two Latin phrases. First, De gustibus non est disputandum—in matters of taste, there can be no disputes. If you think wearing heels looks good, I can’t tell you otherwise. But in the context of this book, I can tell you the other Latin phrase, Caveat emptor—let the buyer beware. Stylish or not, shoes with heels are bad for your body.

Consider a study that measured calf muscle length and Achilles tendon agility in women who regularly wear high heels versus women who don’t. The heel wearers had calf muscles that were about 12 percent shorter than those of the non-heel wearers. The heel wearers’ Achilles tendons were more than 10 percent more rigid than those of the non-heel wearers. As a result, the heel wearers had significantly less range of motion in their ankles.

A different study showed how these sorts of structural changes have functional implications. Researchers gathered two groups: one made up of women who had worn heels of at least 5 centimeters (a little less than 2 inches) for forty hours a week for at least two years, and the other made up of women who had worn heels for less than ten hours a week. While the women walked over level ground, the researchers measured ankle and knee motion and lower leg muscle activity. The heel wearers had measurable increases in fascial strain and muscle activity compared to the other group. Their history of wearing heels for much of the workweek had negatively altered their basic walking mechanics.

Heels also tip your pelvis forward, leading to some of the same alignment problems as those caused by poor sitting posture, including lower back strain and weakening of the powerful muscles on your backside.

Running shoe companies and other active-wear brands are among the leaders in making flat shoes that can be worn in professional settings. Merrell, Altra, VivoBarefoot, and others have taken the design principles behind their barefoot-style athletic shoes and successfully applied them to loafers, lace-up flats, desert boots, and the like.

If heels are unavoidable in your profession, do the best you can to minimize the time you spend in them, such as wearing other shoes while commuting and taking the heels off when you know you’ll be at your desk for a while.

Also, go barefoot or wear socks and/or slippers around the house. Why wear shoes inside? Shedding them will not only help your body, but also keep your floors and carpets clean.

#51: Wear Shoes That Fit Your Feet, Not Vice Versa

Hopefully I’ve convinced you to reconsider wearing shoes with heels. Now let’s move on to other aspects of daily footwear.

Try this: If you’re wearing shoes, take one off and line up your bare foot with your shod foot. What do you see?

Ideally, you’ll see that your bare foot widens continually from the heel to the base of the toes. The arch of that foot is engaged, helping to distribute your weight over the foot. Your toes of that foot are probably spread out, and all of them are probably touching the ground.

Now compare that to your shod foot. A typical shoe will be almost the same width from the back to the base of your toes. At that point it will probably taper, either to a half circle at the top or, worse, a point. If you were to X-ray your shod foot, you’d probably see your toes bunched together, perhaps even overlapping as they accommodate the shape of the shoe.

As we saw when looking at the effects of high heels, over time your body will make undesirable adjustments when the natural movement of your feet is hindered or constrained. This will affect how you walk and stand, with ramifications for the muscles and bones throughout your body.

That being the case, it’s important that the shoes you wear most often are in harmony with your feet. Unfortunately, that’s not always our primary consideration. While we might obsess over the shoes we wear a few hours a week for gym workouts or running, we often pick shoes for daily living based on color and design, even though we wear these shoes for many more hours per week than workout shoes.

For starters, look for shoes that closely match the shape of your foot. They should be widest where your foot is widest. Your toes should be able to splay, much as if you were barefoot.

Shoes should also be flexible. While rigid shoes like work boots are sometimes necessary, most of us don’t need to wear such shoes for work. A shoe that allows your arch to work naturally as a powerful spring allows for better shock absorption. When your foot is confined in a stiff, rigid shoe and your arch is unable to do its job, the joints in your legs and spine are placed under increased load.

Finally, look for shoes that are low to the ground. More distance between the bottom of your foot and the ground—even if the shoe is relatively flat—means less ability for your feet to sense the ground and react quickly to its surroundings. In the short term, this can increase your risk of trips or falls. Over time it can alter your balance and ability to make use of the information your feet are meant to transmit to the rest of your body.

#52: Walk Like a Runway Model

Phil Wharton is a world-renowned physiotherapist who wrote the foreword for this book. He treats top-level athletes from several sports as well as everyday people whose bodily woes are affecting their quality of life.

No matter the person’s background or physical complaint, one of the first things they’ll do when they see Wharton is walk across the room while he watches. This quick assessment tells Wharton much about whether the person properly performs one of the basic human movements.

Picture an old man walking. One foot is picked up, thrust out ahead and then slapped back down. Most of the rest of his body is rigid and uninvolved. He moves as if being pulled forward and attempting with each step not to fall over.

Now picture a runway model walking. Her hips and butt are engaged, propelling her forward while her arms move in synch with her legs. She moves in a tall, graceful way with good posture.

Most of the people Wharton sees, even highly accomplished athletes, walk more like the old person than the runway model. This stems from what Wharton calls “glutes in hibernation,” which means that your posterior chain—the strong muscles along your backside—has become weak and tight from misuse. (The amount of sitting most of us do is a leading cause.) As a result, the body compensates by shifting tasks like walking from backside muscles elsewhere. An extreme example is the old person above, who walks by using the hip flexors in the front of the legs to lift one foot at a time and place it a few inches ahead.

There are two compelling reasons to relearn how to walk properly. First, it’s always good to use your body as it evolved to be used. Walking by pushing with your butt muscles instead of pulling with your thigh muscles will help to reactivate your posterior chain, leading to more power and efficiency in your daily activities. Second, walking properly leads to better alignment, which in turn results in more even distribution of forces on your body and fewer back, shoulder, and neck aches and pains.

The next time you’re walking down the street, take a moment to assess your gait. If it feels like your hips are rigid and most of the motion is coming from the front of your legs, visualize a runway model. As you begin to take a step forward, contract the glute muscle of that leg. Notice how doing so engages your pelvis as you start to push forward. The opposite arm will swing forward. Land not on your heel, as if you’re braking, but on your midfoot, which will help to propel you forward. Your shoulders and hips will be aligned, in contrast to your being bent forward at the waist, as often occurs in the old-man walk.

Wharton calls this “a proud walk.” Indeed, at first it can feel almost like you’re strutting. You might have to remind yourself that it’s okay to be presenting yourself to the world in a new way. Eventually you’ll lose whatever self-consciousness might come from walking like this.

Start by interspersing segments of runway-model walking with your normal gait. Over time keep increasing the amount of your new powerful walking style until it becomes your norm.

#53: Walk Backward

Watch children play, and you’ll see them moving easily in all directions. Most adults, however, have but one orientation they can confidently manage—forward. They’ve lost the functional dexterity that used to come naturally. If that’s you—if moving any way but straight ahead is challenging—you should regularly do small amounts of backward walking.

Relearning how to move in more than one direction has significant benefits. In research on people recovering from knee injuries, people who did both backward and forward walking as part of their rehab had greater gains in quadriceps, hamstring, calf, and shin muscle strength compared to people who did only forward walking. The unfamiliar motion of walking backward challenged the front and back leg muscles enough that they responded by getting stronger. In contrast, the accustomed forward gait wasn’t nearly as much of a stress. This is good for getting through daily activities without injury and undue fatigue, but not so good for getting stronger.

Another big benefit is that the relative lack of visual cues when you’re walking backward helps to improve your balance and coordination. (See item #62 to learn how much we rely on seeing to maintain our balance.) You might also be inspired to try backward walking when you hear it burns more calories than forward walking.

Start with small amounts of backward walking in a setting you’re familiar with. For example, go backward the last couple hundred yards as you approach your home on a walk around the block or from a store. Look back occasionally to make sure your path is free of obstacles and traffic. Other good options are going up and down stairs backward, and mixing in some backward motion when walking on a treadmill or using an elliptical machine.

#54: Stretch Regularly

Remember our old man walking in item #52? Let’s say he’s making his way down the sidewalk when he spots a dollar bill on the ground. Picture him trying to pick it up. Now imagine a child who sees the bill and moves to claim it. What do you see?

For the old man, you probably visualized a stiff, unsuccessful attempt to bend forward, while the child quickly and effortlessly scooped up the bill. The difference between the two is largely because of differences in flexibility and mobility. Flexibility has to do with the length of a muscle—what’s its maximum stretch point? Mobility has to do with the suppleness of a muscle—what’s its ability to move freely within the range dictated by its length? Together, flexibility and mobility determine how freely you can move. In the next item, we’ll look at the best ways to increase mobility. Here we’ll look at how to build flexibility.

You might be most familiar with stretching as something to do before working out. And when you think stretching, you probably think of what’s known as static stretching, or moving into a position that stretches a muscle and holding the stretch for a while. Static stretching as traditionally practiced has largely fallen out of favor with active people. Stretching in this way before activity, when muscles are cold, has been shown to reduce muscular power during the ensuing activity. It can also produce what’s known as the stretch reflex, in which the muscle contracts in reaction to the sudden change of its length and is no better prepared for activity. A better way to warm up before exercise is with dynamic stretching, or gentle motions that mimic some of the movements you’ll be making (e.g., arm circles before lifting weights), and a light version of the activity itself (e.g., starting a run by walking, then easing into a jog before picking up the pace).

So, if before working out isn’t a good time to work on your flexibility, when is? Two answers: first, after a workout, when your muscles are warm. This can be achieved with static stretching or the alternative described below. For static stretching, target the areas of your body where you’re tightest, ease into stretches only to the point of slight tension, keep breathing, increase the length of a stretch only as doing so isn’t a strain, and hold each stretch for a minute.

Those short stretching sessions will help to preserve your flexibility. Improving it takes a little more time but is well worth the investment. Two or three fifteen-to-twenty-minute stretching sessions a week will lengthen your muscles, thereby increasing your range of motion and quality of movements. You’ll be able to do more regular activities without hurting yourself, including picking up dollar bills from the sidewalk.

If you have the time, doing a longer stretching session after activity is a great time. A stand-alone stretching session has the added benefit of being another time of day when you can disconnect and focus on yourself. Once you establish a stretching routine, it can take on a meditative or at least calming quality.

Now, about that alternative stretching method. It’s called active isolated stretching, or rope stretching. It’s based on the premise that muscles work in opposing pairs (quads and hamstrings, biceps and triceps, etc.). To most effectively stretch one of the muscles in the pair, the theory goes, contract its opposite. So to stretch your hamstrings, contract your quads while raising your straight leg from the ground. This allows the hamstrings to relax and gradually lengthen, in contrast to being forced through a range of motion that can cause the stretch reflex to kick in.

Active isolated stretching combines elements of static and dynamic stretching. For each muscle you’re stretching, you do ten or so stretches, pausing only at the very end of the stretch, with each stretch lasting only a few seconds. For most of the stretches, you use a rope or towel to assist at the end of the stretch for just a little bit more range of motion. Exhale during the stretching part, inhale while returning to the start position. You can do a whole-body active isolated stretching in less than twenty minutes. You’ll feel noticeably better immediately after each one, and measurably more flexible after six weeks of regular sessions.

Good posture also helps your flexibility, because it keeps your muscles in their proper position and length rather than strained and constricted.

#55: Perform Self-Massage

Who doesn’t love a massage? While there’s nothing quite like an hour under the hands of a skilled therapist, you can produce much of the good of a professional massage on your own with the right self-massage tools.

One big reason you feel so good after a massage is that you’ve experienced myofascial release. “Myofascial” refers to fascia, the connective tissue that surrounds your muscles and other body parts and allows for movement. This internal webbing can easily stiffen, for reasons such as repetitive motions, inactivity, and improper posture. When your fascia is tight, your mobility, or ability to move freely and easily, is limited.

Many people who feel constricted in their movements think about stretching. As we saw in the previous item, regular stretching is important to maintain or even increase your flexibility. But mobility is equally important to feeling good and performing daily activities without strain. An analogy that Daniel Frey, DPT, uses is Silly Putty. (We met Frey in item #44 about proper workstation ergonomics.) When you first remove Silly Putty from its container, it doesn’t have much give. But as you rub it around in your hands, it warms and softens, and can be stretched much farther without breaking. That process, Frey says, is analogous to the increase in mobility you can gain from myofascial release.

One of the best ways to perform self-massage is with a foam roller. The basic motion on a foam roller is to place a body part on it with noticeable, but not painful, pressure, and then roll back and forth for thirty to sixty seconds. Foam rollers are easy to use on the front and back of your legs as well as your upper and lower back.

Image via Creative Commons

The classic foam roller is a firm log about six inches in diameter and three feet long, made of polyethylene foam or EVA. Manufacturers often color-code their rollers based on firmness, with white usually the softest and black the firmest. Over time, foam rollers can lose their firmness and, therefore, their effectiveness. There are many variations on the basic model, including shorter, hollow rollers with raised areas for extra pressure.

Depending on the body part you’re working on, different tools might be called for. Self-massage sticks—the best known is, appropriately, The Stick—are smaller than foam rollers and easy to use on your legs. They’re harder to use on your upper body while staying loose and relaxed. Some deeper muscles, such as your glutes and where your hamstrings attach to your pelvis, are difficult to target with larger rolling tools. Gently lowering the area onto a small, firm ball—such as a tennis ball or lacrosse ball—and then rolling around is more effective in these cases.

Self-massage tools can also target trigger points, which are areas in muscles where knots have developed over time. It’s possible to have excellent range of motion but still have trigger points that create pain and tightness. Trigger points start as microtears that become chronic through a tear-and-repair repetitive cycle, leading to increased tension in the affected muscle. When working on a trigger point, repeated shorter bouts are better than one longer bout. This approach is similar to what massage therapists do—work on an area to increase blood flow, work elsewhere for a few minutes, then return to the trigger point.

Performing self-massage at least a few times a week, for five to ten minutes at a time, will have a profound impact on your mobility. Myofascial release is safe to do before or after exercise but is effective no matter when you do it. A short session soon before going to bed is a great way to finish the day.

#56: Take a Yoga Class

Or two or three or four, for that matter.

Yoga is rightfully seen by many people as a cornerstone of their health. They value how it builds strength, flexibility, mobility, and balance; encourages mind-body awareness; improves posture, breathing, and mindfulness; and relieves stress.

Those benefits are all available in a good yoga class. I’m recommending you take one or more for a more specific reason: to perform a functional screening of your body.

An all-around yoga class will include a variety of poses—balancing, strengthening, standing, opening, bending, twisting, and more. There will also be gentle restorative poses, probably at the end of the class. It’s likely that you’ll find some types more challenging than others. That discovery can highlight key things you can do to better your body.

For example, say you find forward bending poses such as Downward Dog to be particularly challenging. This probably means your backside—hamstrings, glutes, lower back, thoracic spine—is too tight and that you should concentrate on improving flexibility in these areas. Maybe you’ll find chest opening poses like Camel the most difficult. This probably means your front body is constricted and that you’ll benefit from better postural habits. Or maybe strengthening poses like Warrior are the trickiest, indicating, among other things, that you’d benefit from greater hip and glute strength.

You might also find that one side of your body can perform poses better than the other. Differences in how you do a standing pose like Tree reveal strength and balance discrepancies that can cause poor posture, chronic strain on one side of the body, and more. Even something as seemingly simple as Corpse Pose, which looks more or less like lying on your back, can be revelatory, if you find you’re unable to relax your mind long enough to just concentrate on your breathing.

#57: Do Cat-Cow Yoga Pose

This yoga posture is a combination of two poses, Marjaryasana (Cat pose) and Bitilasana (Cow pose). It’s a gentle vinyasa, or breath-synchronized movement, that almost everyone can easily do. Cat-Cow should be mandatory in offices and anywhere else where people sit most of the day.

That’s because Cat-Cow provides immediate relief for much of the tightness that comes from sitting. During the Cat section, your spine will lengthen, your lower back will stretch, and blood flow to the discs between your vertebrae will increase. During the Cow section, your chest will open up, and your head and neck will get a needed elongation. The rhythmic breathing throughout will oxygenate your internal organs.

To do Cat-Cow, start in a neutral position on your hands and knees, with your back flat, your wrists under your shoulders, your knees under your hips, your fingers pointing forward, and your head held gently while you look down.

Start with Cow pose. Inhale as you slowly drop your stomach toward the ground. Lift your chin and chest, and move your ears away from your shoulders. Look up toward the ceiling. Move into Cow pose very gently so as not to strain your lower back.

Then move into Cat pose. Exhale slowly but forcefully as you round your back. Draw your belly button toward your spine and visualize moving the outside of your hips up. Tuck your chin toward your chest without forcing the movement. Try to keep your weight evenly distributed instead of having your shoulders bear the bulk of it.

Return to Cow pose, and move smoothly and continuously between the two poses for ten breaths. Each time, gently stretch your lower back a little more than the previous pose. You’ll feel better after just one minute of doing Cat-Cow.

#58: Reset Your Shoulders

Even with diligence about posture and good workstation ergonomics, you might often find yourself slumped forward, either in front of a computer or over a phone. Help your shoulders and neck return to a neutral position, and open up your chest by doing wall slides a few times each work day.

Stand with your back against a wall. Visualize dropping your shoulder blades. Your heels, butt, and head should be touching the wall. While keeping your elbows and the backs of your arms and hands pressed against the wall, raise your arms to a 90-degree angle. If you’re unable to keep your hands against the wall in this position, keep your elbows in the same position, and move your hands out a little until they can comfortably rest against the wall.

Slowly but deeply inhale as you slide your arms up and slightly out. By the top of the position, your arms will be straight in a V-shape. Exhale slowly but deeply as you return your arms to the start position. Your head, butt, and feet should remain against the wall throughout. Do ten slides.

If you don’t have access to a clear wall, do a variation in a doorway. Stand facing the doorway and place your arms at a 90-degree angle in the doorway, so that your palms are against the surface. Inhale slowly but deeply as you straighten your arms to slide them up. Exhale slowly but deeply as you bring them back to the start position. Maintain good posture throughout, with your head, shoulders, hips, and feet aligned. Do ten slides.

#59: Strengthen Your Neck

The average adult human head weighs ten or eleven pounds. That’s a heavy piece of equipment to have perched atop your neck. And when, as is common, your head gets out of position, the rest of your body tends to follow. The result is poor posture and chronic low-grade aches and pains, especially in the neck, shoulders, and upper back.

The most common example of a misaligned head is what’s known as forward head, in which your chin is thrust out and your ears, rather than being positioned over your shoulders, are in line with your collar bones. This phenomenon is rife among people who spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen.

It’s a good idea, of course, to regularly check your posture, to see if your head, shoulders, hips, and feet are lined up with one another. But you can greatly increase your chances of maintaining good head posture by doing a simple exercise that strengthens the front of your neck. When those muscles are strong, you can more naturally hold your head erect and in a neutral position.

To do the exercise, all you need is a wall and a small ball with some give, such as a light, hand-held ball weight. While standing tall, place the ball between your forehead and the wall. Push with your forehead to press the ball against the wall. Hold for three seconds, then relax, but maintain enough pressure to keep the ball against the wall. Do ten repetitions, ideally a few times a day on workdays. You should feel an almost immediate repositioning of your head. After two to three weeks, you’ll probably notice less discomfort and tightness in your neck and shoulders.

#60: Reset Your Neck

Even after the benefits of the above neck-strengthening exercise kick in, it’s easy for your neck muscles to get tight and your head to be out of alignment. Reset your head’s position with the following series of neck stretches. Do them all slowly and gently; if your neck and shoulder muscles are under chronic strain, one too-quick move can cause a spasm that might affect you for days.

Start with short sweeps. Stand with your knees slightly bent and your hands on your knees. Drop your head slightly, with your chin tucked toward your chest. Leading with your chin, slowly sweep your head from one side to the other like a pendulum. Begin with a small sweep, and gradually increase the distance over ten sweeps to no farther than your chin coming to shoulder level.

Next, stretch the back of your neck. Stand tall, with your head positioned over your shoulders. Place one hand on your chin and the other on the crown of your head. Exhale as you use your front neck muscles to draw your chin toward your chest. Use your hands only to guide the motion; don’t pull your head down. Inhale as you return your head to the starting position. Do ten repetitions.

The last two stretches are for the side neck muscles. Stand tall with your head aligned with your shoulders. Place your right hand over the top of your head so that its fingers are pointing toward your left ear. Exhale as you use the muscles on the right side of your neck to move your head down toward your right shoulder. Don’t pull with your hand; use it to slightly increase the stretch at the end of the movement. Inhale as you return your head to the start position. Do ten repetitions on each side.

Return to standing tall with your head positioned over your shoulders. Place your right hand under but not touching your chin. Place your left hand almost in touch with the back of your head. Exhale as you use the muscles of the right side of your neck to turn your head to look toward your right shoulder. Keep your hands hovering in place until you’ve almost completed the motion, then place them on your head and use them to gently increase the stretch. Inhale as you remove your hands from your head and return your head to the start position. Do ten repetitions on each side.

This quick series will provide significant relief to tired muscles while giving you greater awareness of your head position. Do it two or more times per day during work hours. It’s also an easy way to feel better when you’re trapped in place during a long plane flight.

#61: Do Bone-Building Activities

The goal here isn’t near-immediate improvement, like you can get from muscle-building activities like weight lifting. Instead, it’s forestalling an otherwise near-inevitable occurrence—decreased bone density and the frailty that accompanies its advanced form, osteoporosis.

This is oversimplifying, but bone tissue responds to stress in the same basic way that other body parts do: it’s temporarily compromised, then, if given adequate recovery, rebuilds stronger in anticipation of encountering the stress again. For muscles, this means becoming bigger to be better able to lift weight; for your circulatory system, this means becoming more efficient at delivering blood; and for your bones, it means becoming denser to better handle impact forces.

The traditional view was that weight-bearing activities were the key to spurring greater bone density. More recent research has shown it’s important that the activity have a jarring impact and/or it target bones such as the spine and hips that are common sites of osteoporosis. Running and jumping activities—basketball, tennis, vigorous dancing, jogging—meet these criteria. Strength training that involves the hips and back—think squats, dead lifts, overhead lifts—also works. Low-impact weight-bearing activities such as walking or using an elliptical machine aren’t as effective but are better than doing nothing if your current health precludes more high-impact activities.

Note that two popular forms of aerobic exercise, cycling and swimming, don’t meet the bone-building criteria. In studies comparing runners, cyclists, and weight lifters, the cyclists tend to have lower bone density. If one of these is your main form of aerobic exercise, you’ll want to incorporate twice-weekly strength training.

The bone-building effects from activity accrue slowly over time; studies have found increases of 1 percent or less per year in bone density. This doesn’t mean they’re insignificant. Without the right activities, adults past the age of thirty can lose anywhere from a fraction of a percent to 2 or more percent of bone density per year. Left unaddressed, these losses accumulate to significant effect over the course of just a decade, for both women and men. The right activities can stave off those declines, leading to a lower risk of fracture, better posture, more independence, and, therefore, greater quality of life.

#62: Improve Your Balance

Put this book down—but only for a short while!—and try an experiment.

From a standing position, lift one foot off the ground so that it’s parallel with the other knee. Then close your eyes.

How’d that go for you? If you’re like most people, as soon as you shut your eyes you began to wobble. You may have even started to fall over.

What that exercise tests is your proprioception, or your sense of spatial orientation. Proprioceptors are sensors in your muscles and tendons that constantly assess the movement and orientation of your body in relation to the surrounding environment. Proprioceptors help you quickly catch yourself and stay on your feet when you do something like unexpectedly step on a wet floor or an unseen object. Closing your eyes in the above balance test makes you rely solely on your proprioceptors (and makes you realize how, without your thinking about it, vision plays a key role in balance).

Improving your proprioception will help you to avoid falls, ankle sprains, and other consequences of what you might ascribe to clumsiness. You’ll also be better able to navigate tricky terrain and poorly lit environments.

A simple way to do so is repeat the above balance exercise twice a day on each foot. Start by balancing on each foot for a minute at a time, with your eyes open. When that’s no longer challenging, do it with your eyes shut. A convenient time to do two minutes of balance exercises twice a day is when you brush your teeth in the morning and evening.

A nice thing about balance exercises is that your central nervous system learns quickly. Within a week you should start to notice marked improvement.

#63: Do Planks

Adequate strength in your midsection is essential to maintaining good posture. Without good core stability, you’re more likely to sit, stand, and move in ways that will throw your body out of alignment, setting you up for chronic low-grade strains and discomfort from your neck all the way down to your feet.

Planks are a simple way to build basic core strength. The three variations described below are quick, convenient, and effective do-anywhere exercises. For each, stay in the position only as long as you can maintain the proper form. Over time, work up to holding each for one minute. Devoting a few minutes most days to doing planks will give you a stable base for daily activities.

Image via Creative Commons

Start with a prone plank. Lie on the ground flat on your stomach. Place your forearms flat on the ground with your elbows under your shoulders. Lift your body off of the ground and make a straight line through your ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, and head. Focus on keeping your stomach and glutes tight. Stop if your hips drop or lift up, or if your stomach sags.

Next, turn over and do a supine plank. Lie on the ground flat on your back. Place your forearms flat on the ground with your elbows under your shoulders. Use your glutes and lower back muscles to raise yourself so that your elbows and heels are in touch with the ground. Keep a straight line through your ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, and head. Don’t thrust your hips higher than the rest of your body. Stop if your hips sag or you start to shake.

Finally, do side planks. Lie on one side with your top leg slightly in front of your bottom. Place the forearm on the down side against the ground and under your shoulder. Raise your hips off the ground, balancing on your feet and arm. Maintain a straight line along your feet, hips, spine, and head. Be careful not to let your hips sag toward the ground. Repeat on your other side.

#64: Do Push-Ups

Adequate upper-body strength is crucial for getting through daily activities without injury and frustration. Because few of us do work that requires and therefore builds upper-body strength, we need to take time to nurture it.

Push-ups are to upper-body strength as planks are to core strength. They’re quick, convenient, and effective; and for people who just need the basic benefits, they’re good enough. Done properly, push-ups will strengthen your shoulders, chest, triceps, abs, and more, and improve your posture. They’re a great example of how simple exercises build functional fitness, the sort that is broadly applicable to many activities rather than specific to one sport and muscle group.

To do a basic push-up, place your hands on the ground under your shoulders, with your arms straight. With your weight balanced evenly between your hands and toes, align your body from your ankles through your hips on up to your shoulders. Slightly contract your abs and back leg muscles to help you maintain this straight position. Keep your neck relaxed and your head in line with the rest of your body.

Inhale as you lower your chest to the ground. Focus on keeping your back flat and your head aligned with your shoulders. Don’t let your hips sag or point up. Keep your elbows close to your torso. Exhale to return to the start position, always focusing on keeping your body aligned.

Do only as many as you can with proper form. A few good push-ups done correctly are better than three times as many with bad mechanics. Don’t try to increase the number you do every time. As your strength increases and you become more familiar with holding the proper form, you’ll naturally be able to start doing more. If you can properly do twenty to twenty-five push-ups at a time and want to continue progressing, increase your volume of push-ups by adding one or more additional push-up sessions during the day rather than doing more all in one session. Trying to do too many at once can overload your lower back.

#65: Strengthen Your Grip

Research has found grip strength to be an indicator of overall muscular strength and endurance. A good grip is necessary if you have the laudable goal of lifting weights to strength other parts of your body. And good grip strength makes daily activities such as carrying shopping bags or luggage and opening jars easier.

You’ve no doubt seen a hand gripper, the two-handled device built for the sole purpose of strengthening your grip. A few sessions per day of squeezing it with each hand for twenty to thirty seconds at a time will give you more than enough grip strength for daily life. You can also build that aspect of grip strength, called crush grip, by performing the same action with a stress ball or a soft material such as a washcloth or newspaper wadded up into a ball.

A convenient way to build support grip strength, which is what you use when carrying something, is to do a farmer’s carry. Wrap each hand around a dumbbell or kettlebell and walk around a room for a minute. A weighted watering can also works here. The final type of grip strength is called pinch grip, which you use to grab and hold something between your thumb and fingers. Use the device you carried in the farmer’s carry, but stand in place while holding it with a pinch grip for up to one minute per hand.

#66: Lift with Your Legs

Here’s a case where the conventional wisdom is both correct and often unheeded.

The biggest, strongest muscles in your body are between your butt and knees. Yet many people lift items on the ground by bending over the item and pulling up with their arms while keeping their legs mostly or entirely straight. Lifting like this removes the legs from the equation and places most of the load on your lower back and spine. Doing so is not only ineffective but also dangerous, with compression of the spinal discs and/or lower back pain possible.

To safely lift a heavy object off the ground, stand in front of it with your feet shoulder-width apart, with one foot a little in front of the other. Squat in front of the object by bending your hips and knees while keeping your back straight and your shoulders unhunched.

This next step is crucial: grasp the item and begin ever so slightly to come up. At this time, make a realistic assessment of whether you can lift the object. We all have our limits; it’s better to underestimate your strength and ask for help than find out the object is too heavy as you hurt yourself.

If you determine you can safely lift it, rise slowly by pushing up with your legs. Protect your back by keeping it straight and not turning. Increase the stability of your lift by keeping the object close to your body at stomach level. Once you’re erect, maintain a straight back. Initiate changes in direction with your feet and hips, not your upper body.

If you have a history of back problems, or if you’ve been idle for a while, such as first thing in the morning, use the above technique even when lifting lighter items.

#67: Use Over-the-Counter Painkillers Sparingly

The usual reason given for not mindlessly downing ibuprofen and other nonprescription painkillers is your internal health. Use of these popular drugs has been linked to two types of kidney problems. One, acute renal failure, is a relatively rare emergency situation caused by short-term use, most often in certain vulnerable populations. The second type of kidney problem is long-term, brought on by regular use of these drugs over years. These problems occur because the drugs are excreted through the kidneys rather than broken down by the liver or passed through your digestive tract.

Those are good reasons to take the drugs only as prescribed. Here’s another: pain is your body’s signal that something is wrong. Regularly masking that pain treats the symptoms but not the underlying cause.

There’s always a balance between getting some relief from pain and making good use of what your body is trying to tell you. Let’s say you wake in the middle of the night with a throbbing jaw. You get up, gobble a handful of ibuprofen, and eventually get back to sleep. You might wake the next morning and find the issue has resolved itself. Alternatively, you might wake and again feel the throbbing. In this case, you keep taking painkillers, but when the drugs wear off, the throbbing is worse, so you take more painkillers. After a week of this you can’t take it anymore, see a dentist, learn you have an abscessed tooth, and get the proper treatment.

Even more typical is some people’s practice of taking OTC painkillers for chronic low-grade issues, such as sciatic pain or shoulder stiffness. In these cases, you’re putting yourself at risk for long-term kidney damage while ignoring what could be a fixable problem with your body. Your sciatic pain might stem from too much sitting and a weak backside. Your shoulder strain might stem from poor posture at work and too much time bent over your phone. In the absence of painkillers, you can better hear your body’s messages and make a plan to address the underlying issue.