Staying healthy behind a desk, while raising kids
I'm Ashley, a 37-year-old software engineer, dad of one (soon two), and I've spent 15+ years sitting at a desk. This is what it did to me, and what I'm doing about it.
At 37, after 15+ years of desk work, things started adding up. A blood test came back with total cholesterol of 8.6 (the limit is 5), LDL of 6.0, and triglycerides at 3.4. Testosterone was low-normal at 10.5.
Constant neck and back pain that never fully went away. I couldn't sit in a deep squat without my heels lifting off the floor. My ankles had seized up from years of sitting. My right foot turns outward when I stand, because tight hip flexors have pulled everything out of alignment.
Then I started playing football with a group of school dads. All similar age, all desk workers. Every week someone would pick up an injury, and it wouldn't be a two-day thing. It'd be weeks of recovery. At 37 you don't just bounce back any more. That was the other wake-up call. It wasn't just blood work on a page, it was watching blokes my age fall apart in real time.
I wasn't overweight by BMI standards, but at 90kg I wasn't where I wanted to be. None of this was dramatic. It was all just gradual. The kind of stuff you ignore until you can't.
This wasn't ageing. This was sitting.
Symptoms you might not connect to your desk
I had most of these and didn't connect them to my desk for years.
Tight hip flexors
My foot turns outward when I stand. Took me ages to realise my hips were pulling everything out of line.
Can't squat properly
My heels lift off the floor. Years of sitting destroyed my ankle mobility and I had no idea.
Neck and upper back pain
Never fully goes away. I kept doing desk stretches thinking that would fix it. It didn't.
Low testosterone
A sedentary lifestyle tanks your hormones. Nobody told me that until I got my blood work done.
High cholesterol
I'm not overweight. I don't eat terribly. But sitting all day changes how your body handles fat.
Sugar cravings and energy crashes
The 3pm crash every single day. I blamed willpower for years when it was really about how my body processes fuel when sedentary.
Brain fog and poor focus
Hard to concentrate when you're running on empty and your posture is crushing your diaphragm.
Weak glutes
My lower back was compensating for glutes that had basically switched off. Sat on them for 10 hours a day, what did I expect.