How Too Much Sitting Creates Imbalance & How Yoga Can Help
In a more natural state you would use a balance of stability, strength, and flexibility created by these muscles and joints to shift between jumping, climbing, standing, sitting and crawling. But when you sit for long periods of time, your hip flexors, the rectus femoris and the iliopsoas, get tightened and shortened. At the same time the gluteal muscles stay in a stretched position and can forget to fire, meaning they don’t work as well. Then the hamstrings, also shortened from sitting, have to work harder making them more prone to injury. The combination can create pain and imbalance in your body.
After 20-30 minutes of sitting, get up and practice one or two of these poses to help stretch your hip flexors and wake up your gluteal muscles. Or practice them as a sequence.
