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“Keep your butthole pointed straight down” — Posture tips as Japan starts the new business year

Casey Baseel Apr 26, 2023
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Don’t let your new job make your body feel old and creaky.

Spring is the start of the business year in Japan, so many of you might be starting new jobs in the country, or starting new jobs with Japanese companies right about now. Maybe you’ve even scored a sweet full-remote work gig, allowing you to work in your pajamas in a relaxed, half-reclining state.

However, just like it’s important to get into the right state of mind when starting your shift, it’s important to get in the right physical state too. While leaning or slouching might feel nice in the short term, over time it can put a major strain on your neck, shoulders, and spine.

So as you start your new job (or continue your old one), Miyamae Machino Chiropractic Clinic has a few pointers about proper posture to help your body feel as happy as your mind when you log out of work for the day. First, let’s take a look at what not to do.

Leaning forward to get a closer look at the screen, like the woman in the photo above is doing, might feel familiar, but it can gradually affect the curvature of your neck, reducing its natural, good-for-you arch and moving it more towards a straight line. It also brings your shoulders too far forward, and the combined strain on them and your neck can lead to stiffness and pain in your joints and muscles as well as headaches.

So is leaning way back, like in this photo, the way to go?

Nope. This is likely to have you sticking out your chin when you need to take a good look at the screen, which isn’t good for the connected muscles of your neck and shoulders either.

Instead, the first objective that Miyamae Machino Chiropractic Clinic is to “elevate your pelvis.” You might be having trouble forming a mental picture of how to do that, so the clinic also provides a simpler-to-understand explanation: “Keep your butthole pointed straight down.” You should also keep your weight equally distributed between your left and right buttock.

Once you’ve got your poop portal properly pointed and your butt balanced, the second thing you want to do is to keep your arms at a 90-degree angle.

This will help you to keep your wrists supported on the table or PC surface, not floating or curled. To help maintain the proper angle, it’s helpful to lightly bring your upper arms in towards your arm pits, without pulling them so close that your shoulders start to pinch.

If you’re working on a laptop PC, the third thing to do is to position the screen so that it’s titled back at a roughly 30-degree angle. Anything too far off from that will have you leaning, craning, or twisting your neck in order to see the screen clearly.

That might sound like a lot to keep track of, but there’s a quick and easy way to check if you’ve got all of your parts where they should be. In the optimal posture, your ears, neck, shoulders, and pelvis should all be visually connected by a straight line.

Of course, that’s all easier said than done, and if you’ve spent years working or studying with less-than-ideal posture, it’s going to take some time to get used to. All the little stabilizing muscles involved might not be up to the task of holding the recommended form for an entire work shift, so you may need to take periodic breaks to stand up and walk around (which is honestly a good policy anyway). Keep at it, though, and your body will thank you.

Source, images: PR Times
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[ Read in Japanese ]