Deskbound by Kelly Starrett

• Sitting is more dangerous than smoking, kills more people than HIV, and is more treacherous than parachuting. We are sitting ourselves to death.
• Unless we are asleep, we human beings are designed to move. Our normal physiology depends on this important fact.
• Our bodies are built for movement, and in turn movement keeps our bodies healthy. It is a symbiotic relationship that has allowed our species to survive.
• When we sit for long periods, the muscles in our lower bodies literally turn off and become inactive. Simultaneously, we automatically adopt positions that don’t utilize critical muscles and connective tissues that stabilize and support our trunk and spine. The result is compromised body function, and it causes a multitude of common and pernicious orthopedic problems, like back and neck dysfunction, carpal tunnel syndrome, and pelvic floor dysfunction.
• Here is a wonderful fact: your body adapts to the position that you assume for most of the day.
• What most people fail to realize is that the positions we assume for most of the day also impact the ways we move the rest of the day.
• Heel-striking is a problem, and it shouldn't exist in the running human.
• The problem can be distilled to three simple points:
• We are not moving enough.
• We are not moving well.
• We are not performing basic maintenance on our bodies.
• All you have to do is follow four simple guidelines:
• Reduce optional sitting in your life.
• For every 30 minutes that you are deskbound, move for at least 2 minutes.
• Prioritize position and mechanics whenever you can.
• Perform 10 to 15 minutes of daily maintenance on your body.
• Sitting only when necessary is one of the best things you can do for your health.
• Work is the biggest opportunity for change. Switch to a standing desk if you can.
• Sitting is an orthopedic disaster and can cause a myriad of body dysfunctions.
• Sitting means that you are not moving, and being sedentary can have significant negative long-term health impacts.
• Whether or not you consider yourself an athlete, you need to understand how to squat and pick something up off the ground without unduly challenging the structural integrity of your body. You still need full range of motion in your joints and tissues. And you still need to perform basic maintenance on your body.
• Our bodies are designed to be on the move constantly walking, running, squatting, gathering. But in this day and age, it is virtually impossible to remove all sitting from our lives.
• If you fail to provide stability for your spine by actively using your musculature and tissue systems, your body will attempt to create a sort of second-tier, or reactionary, stability on its own.
• In other words, if you don’t stabilize your body the right way, it will default to lesser-quality stability by rounding forward flexion) or arching back (overextension).
• When you sit down, the musculature of your lower body basically turns off.
• The moment you round your upper back, your shoulders internally rotated into a forward, collapsed position.
• When we treat someone in our physical therapy practice for low back pain, or when we see an athlete who is constantly tweaking his back during training, the first thing we address is spinal mechanics.
• Good movement always begins with the spine.
• When standing correctly proves difficult, all movement becomes more difficult.
• Belly-based breathing is the way you want to breathe when at rest and while performing normal day-to-day activities. Breathing diaphragmatically grants you access to your parasympathetic nervous system, which does the opposite of your sympathetic, fight-or-flight nervous system.
• Walking is one of the safest and easiest ways to add movement and increase your non-exercise activity throughout the day.
• Going barefoot as often as possible will not only help you walk as nature intended, but also increase your proprioception, improve your balance and posture, and strengthen your feet and legs.
• Bending and squatting are natural movements that all of use should be able to perform efficiently.
• If you’re unable to achieve a full-depth square due to range of motion restriction, spend 10 minutes hanging out the supported square positions [...].
• When you are able to sit in the bottom position without holding onto anything or complaining about your burning shins, you’ve passed the 10-minute squat test!
• Spending 10 minutes a day in a deep square is a great life goal.
• Standing at work is a far better option than sitting because standing is a gateway to movement.
• Simply put, a foot rail makes it easier to stand comfortably for longer periods. In fact, having some kind of foot support is so critical that we don’t consider a standing workstation complete or acceptable if it doesn't give you a place to rest your foot.
• The primary consideration with your keyboard and mouse is to have your forearms parallel to the floor while you're at work.
• The fact that standing is strenuous is a sign that your body is out of whack, because the human body is designed to be upright and moving.
• The three golden rules of sitting:
• Sit with a neutral spine.
• Get up and move every 20 to 30 minutes.
• Perform 10 to 15 minutes of daily body maintenance work.
• Sitting on the ground is the best option, but not all seated-on-the-ground positions are created equal. The one that trumps them all is lotus, a cross-legged sitting position in which you place each foot on top of the opposite thigh.
• We consider sitting cross-legged to be the second best seated-on-the-ground position.
• Try this test: it cross-legged on the floor. If you are unable to adopt this position comfortably, it means that you have lost your normal hip range of motion.
• Your body has a simple rule: use it or lose it.
• Standing is your best option because it enables you to comply with the greatest number of means to support spinal organization and stability. Standing also promotes more movement throughout the day.
• When standing is not an option, sitting on the ground or in a supported passive position is better than sitting upright in a chair.
• When you have to sit upright in a chair, prioritize your stiff trunk/neutral spine and add a second pillar of support by sitting cross-legged or manspreading.
• We recommend ignoring the backrest and armrests entirely and sitting at the edge of your seat, essentially turning the chair into a stool. Sit with your feet planted firmly on the ground, and be mindful of creating a stuff trunk.
• The ideal office chair is one that mimics a stool.
• It’s useful to have some basic guidelines about restoring your body’s mechanics.
• If something is not in their fight place, get it in the right place.
• If something is not moving, get it moving.
• Mobilize the area of localized pain.
• Work upstream (above) and downstream (below) of the problem to address contributing mechanical issues.
• One of the easiest ways to eliminate mechanics-based pain is to restore normal range of motion to the problem area. 
• We can’t begin to tell you that much pain and dysfunction would be eliminated if our joints could just move through the ranges of motion that they are supposed to.
• The deep (or full) square is a fundamental human shape that everyone should be able to adopt.
• Take the 10-minute squat test: try to hang out in a deep squat or supported squat for 10-minutes. If that seems like too much, break it up and do five 2-minute squatting sessions throughout the day.
• In other words, to improve your range of motion, you need to spend time mobilizing in the shape that you’re trying to change.
• It’s simple: if you apply pressure or compress any soft tissue of your body it shouldn’t hurt.
• Pain is an indication that your tissues are tight, restricted, stiff, or knotted up. Put simply, if you feel pain while you mobiles, your tissues are not normal.
• When it comes to mobilizing in a certain position--say, the bottom of the squat--or smashing a tissue such as your quads, the general rule is to stay in that position in those areas for at least two minutes.
• There is a simple yet efficient way to mobile the issues that are limiting your overhead position.
• Remember, you always want to mobilize in a position that is similar in shape to the movement and position you’re trying to change.
• If there’s one mobilization that deskbound people should commit to doing daily, this [couch stretch] is probably it. Most people are missing the critical ability to extend their hips efficiently.