You sit for breakfast. Commute sitting. Work sitting. Lunch sitting. More work. Commute home. Dinner. Couch.

Add it up. Ten, twelve hours a day minimum. Your body wasn’t built for this.

Neither was mine. But here we are.

What Happens

Your hip flexors connect your thighs to your torso. They stay shortened all day. Months of this? They adapt. Get tight. Stay tight unless you do something about it.

Tight hip flexors pull your pelvis forward. Spine tilts out of alignment. Lower back overarches to compensate. That dull ache that never leaves? That’s why.

Glutes turn off. Literally stop working when you sit. Years of sitting and your brain forgets they exist. Dead butt syndrome—actual medical term. When your glutes stop firing, other muscles try to do their job. Those muscles weren’t built for it. Get overworked. Tight. Painful.

Shoulders creep forward because you’re always looking down at screens. Never straight ahead. Upper back rounds. Neck juts out. The muscles back there stretch out and get weak. Chest muscles tighten up. You end up slouched in a way that gets harder to fix the longer you ignore it.

Blood flow slows down. Sitting squashes the backs of your thighs. Blood pools down in your legs. Muscles feel stiff because they’re not getting what they need.

The Pain That Shows Up Later

Most people don’t connect the dots. Lower back pain? Must’ve slept wrong. Tight neck? Probably stress. Sore hips? Getting old.

Wrong. It’s the chair.

That lower back pain comes from your hip flexors pulling your pelvis out of position. The neck tension is from your head jutting forward, which puts massive strain on the muscles holding your skull up. Hip soreness is from them staying flexed all day without relief.

You adapt to this gradually. One day, you realize you can’t sit comfortably on the floor anymore. Or you stand up from your desk, and your hips feel locked. Or turning your head to check your blind spot while driving actually hurts.

A cooling CBD rub becomes essential for a lot of people dealing with this. The menthol hits those tight spots fast while arnica and CBD work on the inflammation building up from months of bad positioning. Neck, shoulders, lower back—wherever tension’s living permanently now. The stick format means no mess, nothing greasy, just relief you can apply at your desk between meetings.

Quick Fixes That Work

You can’t quit your job. Can’t redesign your life around not sitting. But you can interrupt the damage.

Hourly resets matter more than you think. Every hour, stand up. Walk to the bathroom even if you don’t need to. Grab water. Doesn’t matter what—just break the position. Two minutes every hour beats a 30-minute stretch session at the end of the day.

Hip flexor stretches are non-negotiable. Kneel on one knee like you’re proposing. Push your hips forward until you feel a stretch in the front of your back leg’s hip. Hold 30 seconds each side. Do this twice a day minimum. Your hip flexors need active lengthening to counteract all that shortening.

Doorway chest stretches open everything back up. Put your forearms on a doorframe, lean forward. You’ll feel it across your chest and the front of your shoulders. This reverses that rounded-forward position. One minute daily makes a difference.

Glute bridges wake your butt back up. Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat. Lift your hips. Squeeze your glutes hard at the top. Lower. Repeat 20 times. Your body needs reminding that your glutes exist and should be working.

The Desk Setup

Monitor at eye level. Actually at eye level—not “close enough.” Looking down at all creates neck problems.

The keyboard and mouse should allow the elbows to stay at 90 degrees. Reaching forward puts constant strain on the shoulders.

Feet flat on the floor. Or on a footrest. Dangling feet mean hip flexors work harder to hold legs up.

Thighs parallel to the ground when sitting. Too high and feet dangle. Too low and hips below knees makes the hip flexor problem worse.

When It’s Already Bad

If everything already hurts, these fixes still work. Just take longer.

Your body adapted to sitting. It’ll adapt to moving more, but gradually. Tight hip flexors, short for five years, won’t release in a week. Give it a month before judging if it’s working.

Same with glutes. Your nervous system has to relearn activation. The first few weeks of glute bridges might feel awkward. Keep going.

Muscle soreness from suddenly stretching is normal. Sharp pain is not. If something hurts sharply, see the doctor or physiotherapist.

The Real Solution

Sitting less is the actual fix. But since that’s not realistic for most people’s jobs, the next best thing is sitting better and interrupting the position as often as possible.

Every hour standing up. Daily stretches. A desk setup that doesn’t make things worse. Something for tight muscles when stretching alone isn’t enough.

The damage is cumulative. Small fixes daily beat ignoring it until something breaks.