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Deskbound | Kelly Starrett | Talks at Google

Talks at Google

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  • Recommended by 4 people: 4 on Hacker News.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2013 to 2020.
  • Presented by Kelly Starrett, co-founder of San Francisco CrossFit

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

121K views15 years ago4 recommendations

Tools and practiceDeveloper productivity

Kelly Starrett explains how to maintain physical health, improve posture, and perform basic body maintenance while working at a desk.

Health@Google presents: "DeskBound" by Kelly Starrett Everyone knows that prolonged sitting at a desk is hard on your body and health, and an inevitable part of being a functioning modern human. The problem is, sitting is a high-skill and creatively demanding activity. Everyone should be able to perform basic maintenance on themselves. This includes knowing how survive the high risk, high stakes game of being "desk bound". Armed with a pinch of game theory, a dose of anatomy, and a picture of one of the all-time best sitters, you can transform any desk into a platform for thriving. Kelly Starrett founded San Francisco CrossFit with his wife and fellow athlete Juliet. Since opening its doors in 2005, this athletic training center has become one of the prime coaching resources for reigning Olympians, strength athletes, national and world champions, tri-athletes, runners, recreational athletes, and coaches alike.

Why it's here

4 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended by engineers as an essential resource for fixing posture, avoiding back pain, and staying healthy during long hours of desk work.

threepipeproblmon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: Posture – what do you do during work to avoid back pain?”

As someone who has made huge progress on posture over a long period of time, my first recommended steps for you would be: 1. Watch the "Deskbound" Google Talk by Kelly Starett link to this video 2. Read and do the exercises in Awareness Through Movement by Moshe Feldenkrais. 3. Get into the habit of wiggling and shifting your body throughout the day. And get into the habit of devoting regular time to being more conscious of where your muscles are and how you are using them. 4. Trigger Point Therapy is amazing for self-treating body pain, if you are willing to experience short bursts of pain during the treatment.
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chhunsgunson Hacker News • Recommends

On “Fixing the computer guy posture [pdf]”

Here's another useful resource regarding posture and sitting 1 by Kelly Starrett, who's probably well-noted in strength training circles for his MobilityWOD project. He explains how to sit and provides guidance on several related topics such as shoulder/hip mobility and hydration. He also illustrates some massages and stretches you can do to take care of your junk through hours of prolonged sit-and-keyboarding. For what its worth, I've been following along with his MobilityWOD project 2 for some time and it has immensely helped with my strength training pursuits. 1 link to this video 2 link
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paydroon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Apparently standing desks can hurt too”

Love Starrett! He also did a talk at Google ( link to this video ) and near the end someone asks about stand up desks. The problem the author has might not be due to the standing desk but more with his posture. The standing desk probably exacerbated the problem.
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cesarosumon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: Has anyone fixed their own bruxism?”

I suffered from mild bruxism about 10 years ago and have had several bouts of TMJD where I couldn’t close one side of my jaw. For me, the key has been poor posture induced by stress; these bouts coincide with heavy laptop and mobile phone use (neck angle forward and down). What fixed it for me was switching to a good desktop set-up whenever possible and self-treatment via Kelly Starrett’s Becoming A Supple Leopard (there is whole section in the second edition on neck and jaw). He has good general advice in this video as well - link to this video I haven’t used the mouthguard now in probably 5 or more years.
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6r0kon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Ask HN: How to deal with coccyx pain while sitting?”

I realize you're interested in hearing from others dealing with the same problem; I, myself, am not, however, I am extremely interested in our general health as deskbound hackers and would like to offer some thoughts that may prove helpful: 1. Reduce optional sitting. Sitting for extended periods of time compromises our musculoskeletal system and in particular our spinal health. When we sit, the muscles in our lower body basically turn off leaving only our core to support our spine which is not sustainable. We eventually collapse into poor posture with our shoulders rounding forward and hips rounding backward putting the body into a c-shape. This position adds a ton of extra pressure on our…
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6r0kon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Ask HN: Fitness while doing knowledge work?”

I've been a software engineer for over 15 years and so have been working at a desk for just as long. For the first few years I never thought twice about it, just sat all day long, no big deal. Eventually that started to catch up with me and my health began to noticeably decline. I eventually made a conscious effort to combat the sedentary nature of knowledge work and have since seen significant improvements in my health, both physically and mentally. I now have this dichotomous relationship with computers: on one hand I love programming but on the other I can't stand being sedentary and I don't like that the default mode for computer work is sitting at a desk completely stationary. So I'm al…
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