Posture blog post
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- file: posts/posture.md
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title: Posture
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time: 2017-08-16T13:30:00Z
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description: "The story of how I (mostly) overcame back pain, and advice for others suffering from it"
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- file: posts/some-upcoming-crazy-thoughts.md
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title: Some Upcoming Crazy Thoughts
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time: 2017-07-16T13:30:00Z
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About five years ago, I decided to start working out at home since I
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wanted to get in better shape. About three years ago, I got more
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serious about it as I realized my health was slipping (specifically,
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recurrence of asthmatic symptoms after 20 years of being clear). But I
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only started weight lifting 1.5 years ago, and the reason was simple:
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back pain.
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Like many people in our industry—our industry being the "sit in
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front of a computer all day" industry—I suffered from chronic
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lower back pain. I'd been having problems with it on or off since I
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was a teenager (yeah, I was sitting in front of a computer then
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too). But over the preceeding few years, it got significantly worse. I
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had many episodes of waking up unable to get out of bed without
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significant pain. I had a few cases of my spine turning S-shaped for
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days on end, unable to stand up straight at all.
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I have a strong family history of back pain. Like going bald, I'd
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taken it as a given for many years that this would happen. I went to
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an orthopedist, who prescribed painkillers. And that could have been
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the rest of my life: regular pain, popping pills, waiting to see if
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I'd kill my liver with the pills before something else got me. And
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most likely, inactivity due to back pain could have led to plenty of
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other health problems.
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Today is a different story. I won't claim that I'm totally back pain
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free—problems still crop up from time to time. But the
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debilitating level I had previously is gone. And when some negative
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event occurs (like getting knocked down and back slammed by a wave
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this Sunday), I'm far more resilient to the damage. I'm writing this
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blog post since I strongly believe many of my friends, family,
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colleagues, and general fellow programmers suffer terribly from back
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pain, when they could greatly improve the situation. I'll tell you
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what I've done, and what I continue to do.
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If you suffer from back pain, I strongly recommend you consider being
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proactive about it. Feel free to take my experiences into account, but
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also do your own research and determine what you think is your best
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course of action. There is unfortunately—like most things in the
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health world—quite a bit of contradictory advice out there.
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## Two pronged approach
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From my research, I decided that there were likely two things I could
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do (outside of pill popping) that I could do to improve the situation
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with my back:
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* Improve the muscles in my posterior chain (lower back, glutes,
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hamstrings) to better support my spine
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* Change the way I was moving my back, though I didn't really
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understand yet how
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The first bit is easy to explain. I'd been doing bodyweight workouts
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at home until then, which—according to
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[the program I was following](http://www.startbodyweight.com/), don't
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really offer a good alternative to the deadlift for posterior chain
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work. That's why I switched to
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[Stronglifts 5x5](https://stronglifts.com/) and put a large emphasis
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on the deadlift, also focusing on stabilizing my core a lot during the
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squat.
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I'll be honest: I threw my back out badly a few times on the squat. I
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almost gave up. I'm glad I didn't. I (finally) figured out how I was
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misusing my back on the exercises, and now can squat and deadlift
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almost twice the weight that had previously thrown my back out. I
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consider it a huge success.
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In addition to the muscle improvements, the other takeaway is:
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__lifting weights taught me how to use my back in a safer way__.
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## Posture
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But now on to the (for me) more complicated bit. I watched tons of
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YouTube videos, read articles, browsed forums, and spoke with doctors
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and chiropractors about proper posture. The problem is that there are
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different schools of thought on what it means to stand or sit
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correctly. From my reading, the most contentious point comes down to
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pelvic tilt. To demonstrate visually:
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<img alt="Pelvic tilt" style="max-width:100%" src="/static/pelvic-tilt.jpg">
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There's a basic question: should your pelvis tip slightly forward,
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slightly backwards, or be neutral (perfectly vertical). As far as I
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can tell, the most mainstream opinion is a neutral pelvis. I'm always
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nervous to give anything close to health advice, especially contrary
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to mainstream opinion, so instead I'll say: I found a lot of success
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with the [Gokhale Method](http://gokhalemethod.com/), and specifically
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Esther's book "8 Steps to a Pain Free Back."
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The reasoning Esther uses to arrive at her conclusions is solid to
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me. Analyzing the shape of the vertebrae, and specifically the L5-S1
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joint, does make a good case for the pelvis needing to be slightly
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anteverted. In addition, I buy her argument of the source of back
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pain being the predominance of slouching introduced in the western
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world in the earlier 20th century. The evidence of more uniform
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posture among cultures unexposed to this slouching epidemic, and their
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relative lack of back problems, is compelling.
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I won't try to describe the method here; her book and YouTube videos
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do a better job than I ever could. I will, however, comment on some of
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the takeaways that I try to keep in mind throughout the day:
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* Keep the spine in a stretched position as much as possible
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* Stack the bones: try to ensure that your weight is being distributed
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down your spinal column, through your pelvis, and down your legs,
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instead of relying on your muscles or (worse) joints to keep you
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stable
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Keep in mind that this is not an overnight change. You'll need to
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practice better posture and get it to the point of muscle memory. I
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think it's worth every second of investment you can give it. It's not
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worth living your life in pain, afraid to move, and constantly doped
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up.
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## Why now?
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Two things happened this week that made me want to write this blog
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post. I took my kids to the beach on Sunday, and as I mentioned above,
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got knocked down hard by a wave, which twisted my back in a bad
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angle. For the next few seconds that I was under water, absolute fear
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went through my mind. "Oh no, did my back just go out? How am I going
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to drive the kids home? How will I work this week? What if one of the
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kids gets pulled under the water and I can't save him/her?"
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The wave subsided, my feet touched the floor, I stood up... and
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everything was fine. I know in my bones (hah!) that that kind of
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impact would have put me out for a week just a few years ago. I'm
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sitting at my desk typing this now, after having done a deadlift
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session in the gym, and everything is fine.
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Yesterday I took a trip to the doctor (not the topic of today's
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post). I sat in the patient's chair in his office, and noticed
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that—contrary to prior visits—I was sitting perfectly
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upright. I hadn't thought about it. The chair wasn't really well
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designed either: using the back support would have required leaning
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back and no longer remaining straight. It was a minor victory, but
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I'll take it.
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