Finger Lineman

Finger Lineman

Wiggle, Squirm, Stretch And Reach. Stop Sitting Still!

What you are taught to do, what you are paid to do and what you were designed to do, have very little in common.

When you were three years old you ran, bouncing up and down with arms and legs flailing. Movement is joyous to a small child.  Around age six you were admonished repeatedly to sit still, stop squirming, sit up straight and behave like a little grownup.

Your parents trained you to be accepted in any social venue, to be the social and professional equal of anyone regardless of class so you learned manners. Being "polite" doesn't encourage stretching, skipping or waving your arms about.

Your company hired you to keep your nose to the grindstone and your butt in the chair for eight hours with only a couple of pee-breaks and a short lunch. Unless you have a job as a telephone lineman, a mail-delivery person or a basketball coach, you don't stray far from your assigned seat. Your supervisor wants his or her department to shine and will replace you in the blink of an eye if you don't march in lock-step to the corporate drum de-dum dum.

Mother Nature, on the other hand, had only one thing in mind . . YOUR SURVIVAL! The basic blueprint for your body and your mind includes fairly constant MOVEMENT.

Mother Nature spent tens of thousands of years designing a human body and mind that either moves or sleeps. You are designed to endure for a very long time and be productive until you cease to exist. In our hunter/gatherer history (which is most of the timeline for our species) every person had to keep up and share in the workload and therefore humans evolved to do just that.

In a thousand years we will perhaps evolve into creatures with reeeeeally skinny fingers that work digital keyboards more easily, large buttocks to pad our vulnerable sciatic nerves when we sit for days and our eyes will be closer together for better screen focus. We probably won't need peripheral vision by then anyway. But as of today, WE ARE NOT DESIGNED TO SIT IN A CHAIR. . . . NOT EVEN AN ERGONOMICALLY CORRECT ONE!

The human blueprint has evolved as the result of tens of thousands of years as hunter/gatherer. You could say that we are stuck in a challenging transition with a beautifully designed hunter's body that hasn't had time to adjust to our life in a corporate "cage." Your body is "making do" and it pays a very high price for this new lifestyle. As if that weren't enough of a burden, we are living almost twice as long as our predecessors. A small mistake (like sitting in a chair) takes a very big toll when you repeat it thousands of times over 80 years!

Since it is unlikely that you will decide to return to your hunter/gatherer or agrarian roots, the challenge becomes: HOW CAN YOU THRIVE IN CIRCUMSTANCES THAT ARE DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT FROM THE WAY YOU WERE DESIGNED TO FUNCTION? We could explore this dilemma for at least 100 pages but for now let's try to distill the problem down to a few easy suggestions.

Moving big CORE MUSCLES for a couple minutes every hour will move along your blood and lymph fluid effectively even though you are stuck at your desk or airline seat. Relatively tiny muscles are not up to the task (like wiggling toes and circling ankles).

Core muscles are the big THIGH MUSCLES, BUTTOCKS, ABS and DIAPHRAGM (the floor of your lungs). Alternating sides while remaining in your seat, raise one KNEE at a time as if you are marching in place. Each foot will leave the floor a couple inches. Keep your upper body straight and still. Then tighten your BUTTOCKS, alternating sides, as if you are marching with your bottom. Then, as you exhale, draw in your BELLY BUTTON as if it can touch the back of your chair. Relax as you inhale. Then press your SHOULDER BLADES into the chair back. Of course, KEEP YOUR BREATHING SMOOTH AND EVEN DURING ALL EXERCISES! Next, blow out all your stale air and BREATHE in evenly through your nose.

Unfortunately you will do these exercises ONCE after you read them. Then, in spite of good intentions, you will be so engrossed in your work that you will forget in spite of the fact that you feel much better after you do them. Me too. Use your computer, your watch or your iPhone to SET AN ALARM FOR ONCE AN HOUR. The quick and easy exercises are guaranteed to give you more energy, to refresh your mind as well as your body. This is good for you AND your boss.

About the Author

Diane Neuman founded The Yoga Workshop in San Francisco where she taught for 11 years. Neuman wrote and illustrated HOW TO GET THE DRAGONS OUT OF YOUR TEMPLE (Celestial Arts). Currently Neuman writes and illustrates a health blog that draws on her 50 years of studying yoga, advanced breathing techniques, stress management and relaxation exercises. To find her blog and learn a new breathing lesson every week, check into Breathing Deep Exercises

Wichita Lineman Glen Campbell

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