Sit Up Straight by Vinh Pham

SIT UP STRAIGHT by Vinh Pham (with Jeff O’Connell) is subtitled “Futureproof Your Body Against Chronic Pain with 12 Simple Movements.” Pham utilizes a conversational, non-threatening tone and plenty of illustrations to help his readers improve their posture. I especially liked the relative ease of implementing many of his suggestions. For example, he encourages sitting on an exercise ball so that you need to essentially keep your feet flat on the floor and your back straight. He also illustrates using a water bottle between your back and a chair at varying heights (lower back, middle and upper) for short times in order to exercise different muscles. Try it (you’ll be surprised)! His sections that begin DO THIS NOW: are great, simple reminders to take care of yourself. These advocate taking your next Zoom call on a walk or getting up and moving every thirty minutes; both actions combat our increasingly sedentary lifestyles and Pham references a 2016 study that found that 60 to 75 minutes every day of moderate-intensity physical activity is “how much exercise it took to offset the increased death risk from sitting for more than eight hours a day.”  SIT UP STRAIGHT is easy to read and full of activities to reduce pain, improve mobility, and avoid future health issues.