The same goes for the back except you should also avoid twisting motions. In addition, there is a special type of awkward posture known as a static posture. This occurs when a body part is not moving, but is still doing work. Thus, if you hold an object in your left hand while using your right hand to work on it, the left hand is subjected to a static posture. Likewise, holding your arms above shoulder level requires several muscles to work even though the arms may not be moving.
People recover much slower from static postures than dynamic movements.
This is in part due to the buildup of lactic acid that occurs in the static body part. The key to determining severity of an awkward posture is how far the joint is away from the neutral position. Most of us will always have some awkward postures in various joints. The idea is to reduce the extremes as much as possible and limit the amount of time the joint is not neutral. Stay tuned for Part 2 in the next issue of Loose Connections to find out how.