I think posture does have something to do with it, because when I stand up straight and tense my stomach muscles, I look a lot better. I suspect that the problem isn’t so much that I have excess fat on my stomach (although I do have some) but rather that my stomach muscles aren’t preventing my stomach from bulging out unless I’m deliberately focusing on keeping them tense. I think better posture can be made subconscious (or else why have adults always told children to stand up straight) but I don’t think there’s a way to keep the muscles tense subconsciously. Or is there?
Speaking of posture, my new office chair has a significant forward curve at my lower back which I find uncomfortable. (I used to sit in an old-timey banker’s chair with a back that sloped smoothly backwards.) Is that because my posture is bad? Am I supposed to be sitting in a way that conforms to that curve? I know some people who strap cushions to their car seats in order to add that curve. I find those cushions really uncomfortable too, but are those people actually on to something or are their backs just different from mine?
Sorry for the double response, but I just remembered something else. Right before COVID, I was in a car accident, and crushed my pelvis. I was bedbound for a year, and had six months of PT to get my muscles back, which is where I learned a lot of this stuff.
Turns out I was also not sitting correctly. I always curled my tailbone under and was sitting on the bottom of my sacro-iliac joint, but your pelvis has something called ‘sit bones’ that you’re supposed to sit on. I find that I can’t sit ‘correctly’ in bucket seats at all, so if you’re sitting at the desk like you sit in a car, maybe that has something to do with it?
I don’t think there’s a way to keep the muscles tense subconsciously
Part of ‘better posture’ is relying on your core muscles for stability instead of your back muscles, and that’s the thing that keeps fucking with me. I overly rely on my back to keep me upright, and I have a hard time keeping my core engaged like that too. From what I’ve been told, it’s a practice thing and I just don’t do it enough for them to stay engaged without thinking about it.
The office chair is providing something called ‘lumbar support’ if you want a search term, and some people do have a bigger curve there than others. I’m proportionally short, so I have to move the cushion around until it hits the sweet spot and isn’t uncomfortable. Slouching will also make your lumbar curve flatten out, so that could be it. I think it’s just a matter of trying different things and seeing what works best for you, it’s not one-size-fits-all.
I’ve heard that could be a posture thing. If you sit like a shrimp, you’re gonna have belly rolls, no matter how skinny you are.
I say, hunched over my keyboard like a gremlin.
I think posture does have something to do with it, because when I stand up straight and tense my stomach muscles, I look a lot better. I suspect that the problem isn’t so much that I have excess fat on my stomach (although I do have some) but rather that my stomach muscles aren’t preventing my stomach from bulging out unless I’m deliberately focusing on keeping them tense. I think better posture can be made subconscious (or else why have adults always told children to stand up straight) but I don’t think there’s a way to keep the muscles tense subconsciously. Or is there?
Speaking of posture, my new office chair has a significant forward curve at my lower back which I find uncomfortable. (I used to sit in an old-timey banker’s chair with a back that sloped smoothly backwards.) Is that because my posture is bad? Am I supposed to be sitting in a way that conforms to that curve? I know some people who strap cushions to their car seats in order to add that curve. I find those cushions really uncomfortable too, but are those people actually on to something or are their backs just different from mine?
Sorry for the double response, but I just remembered something else. Right before COVID, I was in a car accident, and crushed my pelvis. I was bedbound for a year, and had six months of PT to get my muscles back, which is where I learned a lot of this stuff.
Turns out I was also not sitting correctly. I always curled my tailbone under and was sitting on the bottom of my sacro-iliac joint, but your pelvis has something called ‘sit bones’ that you’re supposed to sit on. I find that I can’t sit ‘correctly’ in bucket seats at all, so if you’re sitting at the desk like you sit in a car, maybe that has something to do with it?
Part of ‘better posture’ is relying on your core muscles for stability instead of your back muscles, and that’s the thing that keeps fucking with me. I overly rely on my back to keep me upright, and I have a hard time keeping my core engaged like that too. From what I’ve been told, it’s a practice thing and I just don’t do it enough for them to stay engaged without thinking about it.
The office chair is providing something called ‘lumbar support’ if you want a search term, and some people do have a bigger curve there than others. I’m proportionally short, so I have to move the cushion around until it hits the sweet spot and isn’t uncomfortable. Slouching will also make your lumbar curve flatten out, so that could be it. I think it’s just a matter of trying different things and seeing what works best for you, it’s not one-size-fits-all.